Amy Tan is an American author known for her novel The Joy Luck Club. She was born in the U.S. to immigrant parents from China. She got her B.A. with a double major in English. She received an M.A. in Linguistics. Other New York Bestsellers novels include The Kitchen God’s Wife and The Hundred Secret Senses. She also wrote a memoir called The Opposite of Fate and two children’s books. If you take inspiration from Amy Tan and want to write, here are ten quotes to gain inspiration and motivation.
1. On The Gift of Writing:
“Writing is an extreme privilege but it’s also a gift. It’s a gift to yourself and it’s a gift of giving a story to someone.”
Amy Tan
2. On Originality:
“I thought I was clever enough to write as well as these people and I didn’t realize that there is something called originality and your own voice.”
Amy Tan
3. On Having a Muse:
“The muse appears at the point in my writing when I sense a subtle shift, a nudge to move over, and everything cracks open, the writing is freed, the language is full, resources are plentiful, ideas pour forth, and to be frank, some of these ideas surprise me. It seems as though the universe is my friend and is helping me write, it’s hand over mine.”
Amy Tan
4. On Pleasing Others In Your Writing:
You can get sucked into the idea that, ‘Gosh, this is impressive. Maybe I should do this. It will look good.’ Or ‘I’ll write like this becuase it will impress that critic.'”
Amy Tan
5. On Putting Effort in Writing:
“You can never be an artist if your work comes without effort. That is the problem with modernink from a bottle. You do not have to think. You simply write what is swimmking on the top of your brain. And the top is nothing but pond scume, dead leaves, and mosquito spawn.”
Amy Tan
6. On The Concept of Pride:
“Sometimes you change to survive, and some things you don’t give up, or you’re too prideful, and then you think well, what’s pride? Is it a good thing? Maybe it’s a bad thing. That’s what I look at in my life. It’s always a question in my life I look at, and I never find the answer, because if I did, probably I wouldn’t have books to write.”
Amy Tan
7. On The Fulfillment of Writing:
“I think we often write because we feel loneliness, and people read for the same reason, and then they come away feeling a little less lonely.
Amy Tan
8. On Language:
” 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 Tan
9. On Books:
” You write a book and you hope somebody will go out and pay 424.95 for what you’ve just said. I think books were my salvation. Books saved me from being miserable.”
Amy Tan
10. On Identity and Writing:
” I feel I’ve always been writing about self-identity. How do we become who we are? So I’m just writing from experience about what’s concerning me. “
Amy Tan
If you want more articles about Amy Tan go to Bookstr. I also recommend reading any of her books that I mentioned.