Thanhha Lai Quotes

Whoever invented English
should have learned
to spell.

Would be simpler
if English
and life
were logical

Mother warns
how we act today
foretells the whole year

I hate being told I can't do something because I'm a girl!

Our lives
will twist and twist,
intermingling the old and the new
until it doesn't matter
which is which.

All day
I practice
squeezing hisses
through my teeth.

Whoever invented
English
must have loved
snakes.

People living on others' goodwill cannot afford political opinions.

We glide and I feel as if I'm floating.

This year I hope
I truly learn
to fly-kick
not to kick anyone
so much as
to fly.

Mostly, I wish I were still smart.

Mother says,
People share
when they know they have escaped hunger.
Shouldn't people share
because there is hunger?

Black seeds spill like clusters of eyes, wet and crying.

Oh, my daughter,
at times you have to fight,
but preferably
not with your fists.

My curse: rebellious in my head but oh-so-lovely in real life.

I wish
our cowboy could be persuaded
to buy a horse,

that I could be invisible
until I can talk back

Being stubborn won't make you fluent. Practicing will! The more mistakes you make, the more you'll learn not to.

No, Mr. Johnston doesn't have a horse, nor has he ever ridden one. What kind of a cowboy is he?

How can we scramble away like rats, without honor, without dignity, when everyone must help rebuild the country?

No one would believe me but at times I would choose wartime in Saigon over peacetime in Alabama.-Inside Out and Back Again

Mother tells me,
They tease you
because they adore you.

I step back,
hating pity,
having learned
from Mother that
the pity giver
feels better,
never the pity receiver.