The best Quotes by Amy Tan

Life changes faster than you think.

I didn't fear failure. I expected failure.

I also thought of playing improvisational jazz and I did take lessons for a while. At first I tried to write fiction by making up things that were completely alien to my life.

Who knows where inspiration comes from. Perhaps it arises from desperation. Perhaps it comes from the flukes of the universe, the kindness of the muses.

It's both rebellion and conformity that attack you with success.

California has officially announced that jaywalking is now no longer a crime. So congratulations to the Californians who like walking places. This is great news for the six of you.

New Mexico. It's another state. I mean, it's like California, just less traffic.

We all have our little faults. Mine's in California.

All creative people should be required to leave California for three months every year.

Helsinki may not be as cold as you make it out to be, but California is still a lot nicer. I don't remember the last time I couldn't walk around in shorts all day.

The apparent ease of California life is an illusion, and those who believe the illusion real live here in only the most temporary way.

Things are tough all over, cupcake. An' it rains on the just an' the unjust alike... except in California.

I read the Life magazine articles about free love and free dope in California. At age 20 I drove to Los Angeles.

That's the great thing about California, you can almost go to the mountains and almost go to the beach on the same day.

You know what's remarkable? That England looks in no way like Southern California.

It's the edge of the world
And all of Western civilization
The sun may rise in the east
At least it's settled in a final location
It's understood that Hollywood sells Californication

I drank when I was pregnant with you, you turned out fine. There's everybody saying 'don't drink, don't smoke'. I swear - Texas is turning into California.

In California, they don't throw their garbage away - they make it into TV shows.

They say money can't buy happiness, but it can buy a flight to California - and that's pretty much the same thing.

It is not the strong or the smart that survive, but the ones who can bring about change.

If you don't change with the times, the times are going to change you.

Simba: "Looks like the winds are changing."
Rafiki: "Change is good."
Simba: "Yeah, but it's not easy."

Darlin', "forever" is a long, long time and time has a way of changin' things.

Nothing changes instantaneously: in a gradually heating bathtub you'd be boiled to death before you knew it.

Change is a measure of time and, in the autumn, time seems speeded up. What was is not and never again will be; what is is change.

But there are mistakes that are necessary. Sometimes you have to die a little bit to get back to live a little longer.

I make mistakes like the next man. In fact, being - forgive me - rather cleverer than most men, my mistakes tend to be correspondingly huger.

It's just that... I just think that some things are meant to be broken. Imperfect. Chaotic. It's the universe's way of providing contrast, you know? There have to be a few holes in the road. It's how life is.

Once you have accepted your flaws, no one can use them against you.

I've missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.

Life does not have to be perfect to be wonderful.

Act on inspiration when it strikes.

Success is one part inspiration, nine parts desperation.

Coming up with ideas is the easiest thing on earth. Putting them down is the hardest.

Ideas seem to come from everywhere - my life, everything I see, hear, and read, and most of all, from my imagination. I have a lot of imagination.

Surround yourself with people and things that inspire you. Learn everything you can.

I do not go in search of poetry. I wait for poetry to visit me.

One candidate is too old and mentally unfit to be president. The other one is me.

What do you call an Asian Dwayne Johnson?
The Wok.

I'm paranoid. On my stationary bike, I have a rear view mirror.