Amy Tan

Popularity is given to you, and if you think that just because you're really popular you're a better person, it could be a real crash when you find the popularity goes down.

It's a luxury being a writer, because all you ever think about is life.

I recognise why I have such a strong inability to forgive certain people who betray me. It's chiselled in, like a name on a tomb stone.

I started a second novel seven times and I had to throw them away.

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.

My mother said I was a clingy kid until I was about four. I also remember that from the age of eight she and I fought almost every day.