Maxine Hong Kingston Quotes - Page 2

Quotes about:

• It seems that writing chose me. I feel that because I know history, and I know the history of so many cultures; I have lived a large life.

  Maxine Hong Kingston

  Writing, Culture, Feels

  "Maxine Hong Kingston embarks on new life chapter" by Julian Guthrie, www.sfgate.com. January 23, 2011.

  4 Copy quote

• We seem to be always on cusps. Women come out of the burkah, the niqab, purdah, the closet, then go back in again. Of course, what we need do is to value the happy freedom of all beings.

  Maxine Hong Kingston

  Needs, Niqab, Purdah

  Source: www.sonshi.com

  8 Copy quote

• The swordswoman and I are not so dissimilar. May my people understand the resemblance soon so that I can return to them. What we have in common are the words at our backs. The idioms for revenge are 'report a crime' and 'report to five families.' The reporting is the vengeance-not the beheading, not the gutting, but the words.

  Maxine Hong Kingston

  Inspiring, Revenge, People

  Maxine Hong Kingston (2010). “The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts”, p.62, Vintage

  9 Copy quote

• I've been writing since I was 7, but before that, I was orally making stories.

  Maxine Hong Kingston

  Writing, Stories

  "Maxine Hong Kingston embarks on new life chapter" by Julian Guthrie, www.sfgate.com. January 23, 2011.

  7 Copy quote

• I learned to make my mind large, as the universe is large, so that there is room for paradoxes. Petals are bone marrow; pearls come from oysters. The dragon lives in the sky, ocean, marshes, and mountains; and the mountains are also its cranium. Its voice thunders and jingles like copper pans. It breathes fire and water; and sometimes the dragon is one, sometimes many.

  Maxine Hong Kingston

  Ocean, Fire, Dragons

  6 Copy quote

• I am confirmed in my belief that war is utter destructive violent chaos. There is no "art," no "order(s)," no "just war." No matter what the ideologies, wars are the same.

  Maxine Hong Kingston

  Art, War, Order

  Source: www.sonshi.com

  4 Copy quote

• Attraction eludes control so stubbornly that whole societies designed to organize relationships among people cannot keep order, not even when they bind people to one another from childhood and raise them together.

  Maxine Hong Kingston

  Order, People, Childhood

  Maxine Hong Kingston (2010). “The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts”, p.17, Vintage

  8 Copy quote

• Let my life as Poet begin. I want the life of the Poet. I have labored for over twelve years, one thousand pages of prose. Now, I want the easiness of poetry. The brevity of the poem.

  Maxine Hong Kingston

  Years, Twelve, Want

  Maxine Hong Kingston (2009). “To Be the Poet”, p.3, Harvard University Press

  7 Copy quote

• You must not tell anyone,' my mother said, 'what I am about to tell you.'

  Maxine Hong Kingston

  Mother, Said

  Maxine Hong Kingston (2014). “The Woman Warrior: Picador Classic”, p.9, Pan Macmillan

  7 Copy quote

• Be careful what you say. It comes true. It comes true. I had to leave home in order to see the world logically, logic the new way of seeing. I learned to think that mysteries are for explanation. I enjoy the simplicity. Concrete pours out of my mouth to cover the forests with freeways and sidewalks. Give me plastics, periodical tables, TV dinners with vegetables no more complex than peas mixed with diced carrots. Shine floodlights into dark corners: no ghosts.

  Maxine Hong Kingston

  Home, Learning, Dark

  FaceBook post by Maxine Hong Kingston from Dec 18, 2011

  4 Copy quote

• How unlike a dead fish a live fish is.

  Maxine Hong Kingston

  Fishes

  Maxine Hong Kingston (2011). “China Men”, p.105, Vintage

  11 Copy quote

• ...I've learned exactly who the enemy are. I easily recognize them-business-suited in their modern American executive guise, each boss two feet taller than I am and impossible to meet eye to eye.

  Maxine Hong Kingston

  Eye, Two, Feet

  Maxine Hong Kingston (2010). “The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts”, p.57, Vintage

  4 Copy quote

• My job is my own only land.

  Maxine Hong Kingston

  Jobs, Home, Land

  Maxine Hong Kingston (2010). “The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts”, p.58, Vintage

  4 Copy quote

• The way I'm going now is to focus on peace, to create peace. As Sister Corita said, "I don't go to anti-war rallies. I go to peace rallies."

  Maxine Hong Kingston

  War, Focus, Way

  Source: www.sonshi.com

  4 Copy quote

• I'm so proud that my offspring became a musician. I'm full of awe that we are able to have a whole family live the life of artists.

  Maxine Hong Kingston

  Live Life, Artist, Musician

  4 Copy quote

• Daughters-in-law lived with their husbands' parents, not their own; a synonym for marriage in Chinese is "taking a daughter-in-law.

  Maxine Hong Kingston

  Marriage, Daughter, Husband

  Maxine Hong Kingston (2010). “The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts”, p.12, Vintage

  5 Copy quote

• The sweat of hard work is not to be displayed. It is much more graceful to appear favored by the gods.

  Maxine Hong Kingston

  Business, Hard Work, Sweat

  Maxine Hong Kingston (2010). “The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts”, p.72, Vintage

  6 Copy quote

• To shut the door at the end of the workday, which does not spill over into evening. To throw away books after reading them so theydon't have to be dusted. To go through boxes on New Year's Eve and throw out half of what is inside. Sometimes for extravagance to pick a bunch of flowers for the one table. Other women besides me must have this daydream about a carefree life.

  Maxine Hong Kingston

  New Year, Work, Reading

  6 Copy quote

• You're too young to decide to live forever.

  Maxine Hong Kingston

  Forever, Young, Live Forever

  Maxine Hong Kingston (2010). “The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts”, p.35, Vintage

  5 Copy quote

• I may be ugly and clumsy, but one thing I'm not, I'm not retarded.

  Maxine Hong Kingston

  Ugly, May, Retarded

  Maxine Hong Kingston (2010). “The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts”, p.223, Vintage

  23 Copy quote

• I'd like to go to New Society Village someday and find out exactly how far I can walk before people stop talking like me.

  Maxine Hong Kingston

  Talking, People, Village

  Maxine Hong Kingston (2010). “The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts”, p.228, Vintage

  4 Copy quote

• Ocean people are very different from land people. The ocean never stops saying and asking into ears, which don't sleep like eyes.

  Maxine Hong Kingston

  Ocean, Sleep, Eye

  Maxine Hong Kingston (2011). “China Men”, p.107, Vintage

  4 Copy quote

• I learned to shoot more accurately because my teachers held the targets.

  Maxine Hong Kingston

  Teacher, Target

  8 Copy quote

• Reading Ngo Tu Lap's poems, terrible nostalgia wells up in me- nostalgia for a lost time and a far-gone country, nostalgia for people I've loved, and for creatures of forests and rivers. I feel gratitude too. War is over. Peace arrives with these beautiful poems.

  Maxine Hong Kingston

  Beautiful, Country, Gratitude

  7 Copy quote

• No husband of mine will say, "I could have been a drummer, but I had to think about the wife and kids. You know how it is." Nobody supports me at the expense of his own adventure.

  Maxine Hong Kingston

  Husband, Adventure, Kids

  Maxine Hong Kingston (2010). “The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts”, p.57, Vintage

  4 Copy quote

Page 2 of 3

First

← Prev

1

2

3

Next →

• facebook
• twitter
• googleplus
• email
• linkedin