amy tan

I went with one of my friend's the other night to listen to author Amy Tan speak. I laughed and nearly cried. I own three of her books. She shared very personal stories about her family and herself. She did not realize when she was writing fiction that she was essentially writing actual stories of her family. Stories that no one ever spoke to her. She finds it interesting the way others interpret who she is, and what they value or think is important. She mentioned several times that her quest of wanting to know and understand why, is probably what led her to write. Here are some random Amy Tan quotes I got online: "I did not lose myself all at once. I rubbed out my face over the years washing away my pain, the same way carvings on stone are worn down by water."  "I didn't fear failure. I expected failure." 

some of Amy Tan's books

"I have a writer's memory which makes everything worse than maybe it actually was." "I learned to forgive myself, and that enabled me to forgive my mother as a person." "I loved fairy tales when I was a kid. Grimm. The grimmer the better. I loved gruesome gothic tales and, in that respect, I liked Bible stories, because to me they were very gothic." "I saw my mother in a different light. We all need to do that. You have to be displaced from what's comfortable and routine, and then you get to see things with fresh eyes, with new eyes." "Who knows where inspiration comes from. Perhaps it arises from desperation. Perhaps it comes from the flukes of the universe, the kindness of the muses." "Words to me were magic. You could say a word and it could conjure up all kinds of images or feelings or a chilly sensation or whatever. It was amazing to me that words had this power." "Writing is an extreme privilege but it's also a gift. It's a gift to yourself and it's a gift of giving a story to someone." "You write a book and you hope somebody will go out and pay $24.95 for what you've just said. I think books were my salvation. Books saved me from being miserable."

books for Amy Tan to sign

 more books for Amy Tan to sign

Amy Tan co-wrote the screen play for the movie based on her book

Amy Tan played herself on The Simpsons 

free poster that got all wrinkled in my friend's car

Amy Tan said she was guilty of using Cliff Notes in college and now her book is one.