“I think it would be funny to have one of those family decals showing a really skinny teenage girl barfing into a little chalk-outline bag (the bulimic in the family) or the dad figure dressed in the woman's underwear that he truly enjoys slipping into when no one's looking. Or the wife figure smiling with her exaggerated curly hair and tennis skirt, clutching a racket in one hand and a bottle of Stoli' in the other.”

“In normal families, unbroken families, the mother and the father are like two hands cupped together, and held by those hands are the children. In my family, the hands have pulled apart and the children have been dropped. If one parent isn’t looking after you, they just assume the other one is. You find out you don’t really belong anywhere.”

“This is you." She pointed at the stick figure with enormous red curly marks and blue eyes.Did my hair really look like that? I ran a hand over my head, feeling a bit like Little Orphan Annie.”

“Do you enjoy holidays with your family? I don't mean your mom and dad family, but your uncle and aunt and cousin family? Personally, I do. There are several reasons for this. First, I am very interested and fascinated by how everyone loves each other, but no one really likes each other. Second, the fights are always the same.”

“I think there must have been some other girl printed somewhere in his heart, for he was a man of love and his wife was not a woman to show her feelings.”

“Who would have thought, Mr. Jiabao,that of this whole family, the lady with the short skirt would be the one witha conscience?”