“That was how dishonesty and betrayal started, not in big lies but in small secrets.”

“What is a secret wish?""It is what you want but cannot ask.”

“If you asked me how I felt when they told me I would marry Wen Fu, I can say only this: It was like being told I had won a big prize. And it was also like being told my head was going to be chopped off. Something between those two feelings.”

“For all these years I kept my mouth closed so selfish desires would not fall out. And because I remained quiet for so long now my daughter does not hear me... All these years I kept my true nature hidden, running along like a small shadow so nobody could catch me. And because I moved so secretly now my daughter does not see me... We are lost, she and I, unseen and not seeing; unheard and not hearing, unknown by others. ”

“They know where happiness lies, not in a cave or a country, but in love and the freedom to give and take what has been there all along.”

“All these years I kept my true nature hidden, running along like a small shadow so nobody could catch me.-Ying Ying”

“I felt stuck in the bottom of a wishing well. I was desperate to shout what I wanted, but I didn’t know what that was. I knew only what it wasn’t.The Hundred Secret Senses by Amy Tan”