Maxine Hong Kingston Quotes

Children, everybody, here's what to do during war: In a time of destruction, create something. A poem. A parade. A community. A school. A vow. A moral principle. One peaceful moment. (Epilogue)

The images of peace are ephemeral. The language of peace is subtle. The reasons for peace, the definitions of peace, the very idea of peace have to be invented, and invented again. (Epilogue)

Humans are basically good. That's why it takes so much training to march march march kill kill kill kill. ("Earth" p269)

If a woman is going to write a Book of Peace, it is given her to know devastation. ("Fire" opening line)

Of course, I'm an ethnic writer, and only benighted people see ethnics as not partaking of the macrocosmic. And only Chinese Americans who are very mad would kick an admirer of Henry James and William Carlos Williams out of our family

I want English professors to put my books on regular reading lists. An American writer. We have worked hard for fairness in the job market and housing and schooling, and our art should not be segregated out. Readers ought not to have boring preconceptions of what a story is about just because its author is "ethnic." "Ethnic writer" and "feminist writer" have been used dismissively.

Joy and life exist nowhere but the present.