Aima

“Is this life, which may be worth living, worth suffering for? If life is worth suffering for, should there be a limit, or should one have to suffer unquestioningly, all in the name of living?”
― Yiyun Li, Things in Nature Merely Grow

“Fiction, one suspects, is tamer than life.”
― Yiyun Li, Things in Nature Merely Grow

“Grief fills the room up of my absent child, Lies in his bed, walks up and down with me, Puts on his pretty looks, repeats his words, Remembers me of all his gracious parts, Stuffs out his vacant garments with his form; Then, have I reason to be fond of grief? Fare you well. Had you such a loss as I, I could give better comfort than you do. I will not keep this form upon my head When there is such disorder in my wit.”
― Yiyun Li, Things in Nature Merely Grow

“I am not a grieving mother. I am the mother who will live, every single day, for the rest of my life, with the pain of losing Vincent and James, and with the memory of bringing them up.”
― Yiyun Li, Things in Nature Merely Grow