Top 150 Ann Liang Quotes (2026 Update)
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51. “And how many people under Heaven were really fortunate enough to know happiness? Happiness was a side dish, like the sweet, sticky rice cakes Mother made during the festivals, or the glutinous balls stuffed with rich sesame paste. But revenge – that was the salt of life. Necessary.”

— Ann Liang

52. “And then – good god – he outruns me. Or, well, outwalks, which is without a doubt much worse.”

— Ann Liang

53. “I really can’t stand it when people are angry at me. Like, I know it might be simple for others, but I can’t focus on anything else. I can’t just forget about it and go on with my own life. It’s like there’s something hard wedged inside my own chest. I’ll always feel guilty. I’ll always want to make amends.”

— Ann Liang

54. “I note quietly that this is the twenty- fifth time he’s brought up the word Harvard in the past ten minutes. If Harvard were a ghost, he would have successfully summoned it back to life by now.”

— Ann Liang

55. “Talent isn’t the same as genius” -Henry.”

— Ann Liang

56. “If I’m not first, I’m nothing.”

— Ann Liang

57. “You’re sensitive, and maybe that means you feel pain and fear and humiliation more sharply, but you also feel joy more beautifully and completely than anyone I know.”

— Ann Liang

58. “Later, though, I would wish I had stayed longer. Woken them up, held them close. Given them the chance to say a proper goodbye. But such things only occur to you in hindsight, framed by the before and after of everything you’ve endured; when it is still happening, all you care about is what lies ahead.”

— Ann Liang

59. “I want you to hold me like a grudge, keep me like a promise, haunt me like a ghost.”

— Ann Liang

60. “My pride. God, my sanity. It would all be over. You would annihilate me.”

— Ann Liang

61. “I’ve had to recount my entire life story to strangers enough times to know that sometimes it’s easier to just let them assume what they want.”

— Ann Liang

62. “Because even though I’ve found Caz Song attractive on a physical level for a while now, my biggest turn-on has always been competence. And as it appears, Caz is unbelievably competent at his job.”

— Ann Liang

63. “It’s cruel, really, how the world tends to present its most beautiful parts to you when you’re so profoundly sad.”

— Ann Liang

64. “His real smiles are so rare that each one feels like a miracle, like you’ve won something.”

— Ann Liang

65. “But then he calls my name once, soft, and I lift my head in surprise. He looks so obviously, genuinely moved, all his gratitude just lying wide open in his gaze, that I can’t stand it. This intimacy. The way it makes my chest heat.”

— Ann Liang

66. “The world becomes beautiful, as long as there’s you.”

— Ann Liang

67. “I really enjoy the implication that the horse poses an obstacle to sink ownership, and that the mother can only have ten sinks, eleven would just be too many.”

— Ann Liang

68. “And Sadie is the light of my life,” Julius says, his lip curling, even though there’s an odd note to his tone. Something that could be confused for sincerity. “The sun in my sky, the source of all my joy. She’s the reason I wake up every morning excited to go to my classes. Not a day goes by where I’m not grateful that she exists, that she’s there, that I get to talk to her and pass her in the halls and listen to her laugh.”

— Ann Liang

69. “I’ve always had this theory that if I wanted something badly enough, the universe will make sure to keep it just out of my reach – either out of boredom or cruelty, like an invisible hand dangling stars on a string.”

— Ann Liang

70. “The one who wanted to be an artist now has their sights set on med school.”

— Ann Liang

71. “I will meet you again in every lifetime there is.”

— Ann Liang

72. “For everyone who’s ever wished they could be someone else.”

— Ann Liang

73. “One minute until the email from Harvard arrives. Until I can know for certain if I was accepted or not. If I’m good enough or not.”

— Ann Liang

74. “I’m not sad because I don’t love life enough, but because I love life too much. I always want more of it.”

— Ann Liang

75. “You have to prove yourself over and over, and when the glory for your most recent achievement expires, as it must, as it always will, you have to start again, but with more eyes trained on you, more people waiting for the day your talent withers, and your discipline weakens, and your charm wears away. Success is only meant to be rented out, borrowed in small doses at a time, never to be owned completely, no matter what price you’re willing to pay for it.”

— Ann Liang

76. “This would be an absolutely incredible, life-changing thing if it happened to me. But for you? It’s just another accomplishment, isn’t it?”

— Ann Liang

77. “I just needed the fastest route to the best future for my family. Something that paid the bills on time, that guaranteed stability.”

— Ann Liang

78. “It takes so little for me to love someone, yet so long for me to move on.”

— Ann Liang

79. “Julius isn’t just a boy. He’s my enemy. My equal. My point of comparison. He’s the one I’m constantly trying to outrun, to outsmart, to impress.”

— Ann Liang

80. “His smile feels like a warning, but it’s not the kind that precedes a prank. It’s too sincere, his voice dropping low as he says, “I’ll keep being your enemy, if that’s what you’d prefer.” His eyes drop down too, drifting to my lips with such weight and intent that I can almost feel the ghost brush of his gaze. “I can be whatever you want me to be.”

— Ann Liang

81. “There’s never been anybody else for me. There never will be.”

— Ann Liang

82. “That’s the one thing I’ve worked for my entire life – to be someone who matters. That’s why my parents moved to this country. That’s my purpose. If I can’t do it, then what’s the point of anything? What’s the point of me? What possible value could I provide?”

— Ann Liang

83. “The men fight for their thrones and their power and their legacies, but to them, we are nothing more than crickets and ants, insignificant, expandable... What does it matter who wears the crown, if they will not change any of this for us?”

— Ann Liang

84. “But a hero to many was still a villain to one.”

— Ann Liang

85. “It’s my life, I think with amazement, and it’s beautiful, and I can paint it any color I want to.”

— Ann Liang

86. “You know,” I muse out loud, “if it weren’t for the fact that we hated each other’s guts, we’d probably make an impressive power duo.” I expect Henry to raise his eyebrows at me as usual or make a cutting remark, but his footsteps suddenly slow beside me. “Wait. We hate each other?”

— Ann Liang

87. “The mind destroys, the heart devours.”

— Ann Liang

88. “Planning things out in detail means there are boundaries, and boundaries mean I’ll at least have control over something.”

— Ann Liang

89. “I’ve always wanted that: to be looked up at, to be known by people I’ve never even spoken to before, to be special, distinct, standing up on the tallest, brightest platform. But only now do I realize that when you’re out in the open, alone under the lights, and everyone else is in the darkness, you make for such a terribly easy target.”

— Ann Liang

90. “His eyes fluttered open, focused on me; it was how he had looked at me in all our time together, across the palace rivers, across the polished floors of his chambers, underneath the moonlight. no matter where we were, he was always the first one to spot me, always the last to look away. as if afraid that i would disappear at any moment, like smoke in the breeze. as if he knew that one day, he would run out of time, out of chance.”

— Ann Liang

91. “Fine.” He drags his chair forward until he’s right next to me, his shoulder almost pressed to mine, the heat of his skin seeping through my shirt. Until I’m aware of nothing but him, his nearness, his physical presence. And suddenly I find myself regretting my own request. It’s hard to think straight like this. I can’t even move without brushing against him.”

— Ann Liang

92. “We turn pain into a story, because then it has a purpose. Then, we reason, there was a point to it all along. But sometimes pain is just pain, and there’s nothing particularly noble about clinging to it.”

— Ann Liang

93. “I’m not so familiar with vices – I like to think I have none, but if anything were to count, you would be my only one. It must be an addiction or an obsession. I have never known anybody as completely as I know you, and yet I still want to sit next to you, draw close to you, closer. I want you to tell me every story, want to listen to you speak until the night sinks in the sky and the stars fade out. I want you to hold me like a grudge, keep me like a promise, haunt me like a ghost.”

— Ann Liang

94. “In the event that I do die in the middle of the night, I beg of you to not react by jumping up and down around my corpse,” Cyrus says flatly.”

— Ann Liang

95. “Whatever you say, my love.”

— Ann Liang

96. “You had to kiss me then kick me then fill my head with your voice.”

— Ann Liang

97. “Sadie, I’d hop on a sixteen hour plane ride to see you. An hour is nothing.”

— Ann Liang

98. “And isn’t it strange, I find myself marveling, how the safest I’ve ever felt is beside the boy I once considered the bane of my existence.”

— Ann Liang

99. “Most sincere things feel at least a little embarrassing. It’s part of our defense mechanisms. Our heart’s way of protecting us from potential hurt.”

— Ann Liang

100. “Something in me is missing. Lacking.”

— Ann Liang