Among writers, if you don't have a therapist, it's like saying you don't keep a journal or use the thesaurus. It's a natural accompaniment.
Amy TanRead
But now that I am old, moving every year closer to the end of my life, I also feel closer to the beginning. And I remember everything that happened that day becasue it has happened many times in my life. The same innocence, trust, and restlessness; the wonder, fear, and lonliness. How I lost myself. I remember all these things. And tonight, on the fifteenth day of the eighth moon, I also remember what I asked the Moon Lady so long ago. I wished to be found.
Interpretation
What this quote means
As we grow older, we reflect on our past with both nostalgia and a sense of longing for connection.
In this quote, Amy Tan expresses the complex emotions that accompany aging and reflection. As she nears the end of her life, she acknowledges the cyclical nature of her experiences, revisiting moments of innocence and vulnerability. These reflections evoke a deep sense of desire for connection and belonging, encapsulated in her wish to be 'found', highlighting the universal human longing for understanding and companionship throughout life's journey.
Themes
AgingReflectionMemoryConnectionLongingNostalgia
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a speech about the importance of cherishing memories and connections as we grow older.
More from Amy Tan
All quotes →Her education only made her unhappy thinking about it - that no matter how much she changed her life, she could not change the world that surrounded her.
Amy TanRead
You can't have intentions without consequences. The question is, who pays for the consequences? Saving fish from drowning. Same thing. Who’s saved? Who’s not?
Amy TanRead
I am fascinated by language in daily life: the way it can evoke an emotion, a visual image, a complex idea, or a simple truth.
Amy TanRead
Even if I had expected it, even if I had known what I was going to do with my life, it would have knocked the wind out of me. When something that violent hits you, you can't help but lose your balance and fall. And after you pick yourself up, you realize you can't trust anybody to save you- not your husband, not your mother, not God. So what can you do to stop yourself from tilting and falling all over again?
Amy TanRead
And for all those years, we never talked about the disaster at the recital or my terrible accusations afterward at the piano bench. All that remained unchecked, like a betrayal that was now unbreakable. So I never found a way to ask her why she had hoped something so large that failure was inevitable. And even worse, I never asked her what frightened me the most: Why had she given up hope?
Amy TanRead
Similar quotes
God's word is always effective and produces whatever it expresses. My words, on the contrary, cannot create anything; I can only change what already is into something else.
Mother AngelicaRead
I know how young black men are seen. They're boys - scared little boys, oftentimes. I was one of them. I was completely afraid of the Los Angeles Police Department.
Kehinde WileyRead
All the higher life forms scythed away, just like that. [ . . . ] Nothing but dust and fundamentalists.
Terry PratchettRead
There is nothing deep down inside us except what we have put there ourselves.
Richard RortyRead
If Israel does not find the way to disengage from the Palestinians, its future might resemble the experience of Belfast or Bosnia - two communities bleeding each other to death for generations.
Ehud BarakRead
Remember: the time you feel lonely is the time you most need to be by yourself. Life's cruelest irony.
Douglas CouplandRead