“But she never looked back with regret. There were so many ways for things to get better.-Jing-mei”

“To come so far, to lose so much and to find nothing.-Jing-mei”

“I won't be what I'm not.-Jing-mei”

“If she doesn't speak, she is making a choice. If she doesn't try, she can lose her chance forever.-An-mei”

“I thought about things, the pros and cons. But in the end I would be so confused, because I never believed there was ever any one right answer, yet there were many wrong ones.”

“Each person is made of five different elements, she told me. Too much fire and you had a bad temper. That was like my father, whom my mother always critized for his cigarette habit and who always shouted back that she should feel guilty that he didn't let my mother speak her mind.Too little wood and you bent too quickly to listen to other people's ideas, unable to stand on your own. This was like my Auntie An-mei. Too much water and you flowed in too many different directions. like myself.”

“Because sometimes that is the only way to remember what is in your bones. You must peel off your skin, and that of your mother, and her mother. Until there is nothing. No scar, no skin, no flesh.-An-mei”