He did too have a philosophy of life: Do the right thing by whoever crosses your path. Those coincidental people are your people. (p223) - Maxine Hong Kingston

The only way to get any work done-without polling everybody, as in a statistical study in sociology-is to give your own peculiar vision; because that's what's interesting, the way one person sees the world. It's up to other people to ask themselves whether they think like that or not. And if they don't think like you, that should be very exciting to them. They would read about something that they are completely unfamiliar with... I was just in Hong Kong and I loved seeing Chinese who were different from myself. To think of the possibility of another way of being Chinese or being a human being is much more exciting than to see someone just like me.

If we imagine characters, can we cause them to appear in the real world? What if I could strongly write peace, I can cause an end to war.

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