Before we can leave our parents, they stuff our heads like the suitcases which they jam-pack with homemade underwear. (p87) - Maxine Hong Kingston

These struggles have got to result in happy endings for all, and the readers must learn not to worship tragedy as the highest art any more. (1990)

I think that individual voices are not as strong as a community of voices. If we can make a community of voices, then we can speak more truth. Also in a community, we learn to listen…

For fiction, we fantasize about what we would like to happen: I am making what I would like to happen happen. And so, this writing always feels new and going forward. If there is such a thing as reverse memory, maybe that's what I am getting into; because it seems to me, I'm writing the memory of the future rather than a memory of the past. (1986)