Top 200 Lisa See Quotes (2026 Update)
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51. “I had always thought it was her way of blinding herself to the messiness of the way we lived. Now I realised it was easier for her mind to go out through the air far above the clouds than to acknowledge the ugliness right before her eyes.”

— Lisa See

52. “Opium and heroin had not caused our poverty and hopelessness. Rather, poverty and hopelessness had brought about an unquenchable desire to forget. After.”

— Lisa See

53. “You may not know this, but the cold-water stress that the haenyeo endure is greater than for any other human group in the world.”

— Lisa See

54. “This is how things were: heavyhearted, but done in the traditional manner. THE.”

— Lisa See

55. “No one picks a friend for us; we come together by choice.”

— Lisa See

56. “When you don’t have much, having less isn’t so bad.”

— Lisa See

57. “The realization that truth, forgiveness, and goodness are more important than revenge, condemnation, and cruelty gives me courage and certainty.”

— Lisa See

58. “No matter what you’re feeling or how desperate you become, always take a moral position. If you do that, God will watch over you.”

— Lisa See

59. “I write a thousand words a day.”

— Lisa See

60. “The problem with living so long is that you see too many people pass before you.”

— Lisa See

61. “No coincidence, no story.”

— Lisa See

62. “A woman isn’t just one thing. The past is in us, constantly changing us. Heartache and failure shift our perspectives as do joy and triumphs. At any moment, on any given day, we can be friends, competitors, or enemies. We can be generous or stingy, loving or petty, helpful or untrustworthy.”

— Lisa See

63. “Man becomes wiser and more mature through life experience. The same can be said of tea.”

— Lisa See

64. “They say nothing to me in a very loud way.”

— Lisa See

65. “It’s a Sun and Moon truth that if a husband sees his wife give birth, he might die from it.”

— Lisa See

66. “Every mother must leave her children to work, and every mother suffers, bu we do it.”

— Lisa See

67. “It was easier for me to begin picking at Snow Flower’s faults than to feel the emotions raging inside of me.”

— Lisa See

68. “My mother had died in the sea, but we could never forget that it gave us life.”

— Lisa See

69. “As obident as dogs and as stupid as water buffalo.”

— Lisa See

70. “You make choices that are good and sound, but the gods have other plans for you.”

— Lisa See

71. “Finally, the nima returns to our plane. “Wrong cannot be hidden. An outside spirit is insulted because Deh-ja made a mistake in one of her ancestor offerings.”

— Lisa See

72. “They did this to me. They did that to me. A woman who thinks that way will never overcome her anger. You are not being punished for your anger. You’re being punished by your anger.”

— Lisa See

73. “Blessings and worry, happiness and fear – this is a mother’s love.”

— Lisa See

74. “You are very smart. You must be very well educated. You are very pretty. You must be very rich because you’re a writer.”

— Lisa See

75. “But there are certain books I would never put on a Kindle because you want to be able to look at graphs and photos or the footnotes and maps. You can’t see that.”

— Lisa See

76. “She loves you. She’s just forgotten how to show it.”

— Lisa See

77. “Stories tell us how we should live.”

— Lisa See

78. “My hardcover sales are 17% down in books but up 400% in electronics.”

— Lisa See

79. “But anger can be dangerous and have unintended consequences.”

— Lisa See

80. “What can we do? We’re only women,” she says. But it’s because I’m a woman, that I dare to go.”

— Lisa See

81. “It took me me many years to realize that my perceptions at this time was completely wrong.”

— Lisa See

82. “Deep love-true-heart love-must grow. Back then I didn’t yet understand the burning kind of love, so instead I thought about the rice paddies I used to see on my daily walks down to the river with my brother when I still had all my milk teeth. Maybe I could make our love grow like a farmer made his crop to grow-through hard work, unwavering will, and the blessings of nature. How funny that I can remember that even now! Waaa! I knew so little about life, but I knew enough to think like a farmer.”

— Lisa See

83. “What the body knows and what the mind chooses to believe are two different things, after all.”

— Lisa See

84. “The government labels the haenyeo a cultural heritage treasure – something dying out that must be preserved, if only in memory. How does it feel to be the last of the last?” If they’re academics, they’ll want to talk about Jeju’s matrifocal culture, explaining, “It’s not a matriarchy. Rather, it’s a society focused on women.”

— Lisa See

85. “Danseuse routine and my fame grew. I could walk into a.”

— Lisa See

86. “Well, Chinese used to be seen as low, right? Working on the railroad, in laundries, and stuff like that. Now they’re seen as smart and wealthy. I mean, isn’t there the stereotype of the model minority? I read an article for school that said people like us – not you, Dr. Rosen – are now labeled as inquisitive, persistent, and ambitious. With ingenuity, fortitude, and cleverness.”

— Lisa See

87. “Sometimes you must experience heartache to have a treasured result.”

— Lisa See

88. “Your mother will always exist in you. She will give you strength wherever you go.”

— Lisa See

89. “Don’t blame yourself for things that maybe happened,” she said.”

— Lisa See

90. “How can the moon be scooped from the water’s surface, or flowers be plucked from the void?”

— Lisa See

91. “People keep asking me why I don’t return to China. I tell them I can’t return to a place I’ve never been. In.”

— Lisa See

92. “DR. ROSEN: Does the phrase grateful-but-angry have resonance for anyone? You can be grateful you have your mom and dad, because they love you and they’ve given you good lives with all kinds of privilege.”

— Lisa See

93. “It takes a lifetime to make a friend, but you can lose one in an hour,” she recites. “Life without a friend is life without sun. Life without a friend is death.”

— Lisa See

94. “Joy is a delicious luxury that we experience most cautiously, for tragedy conceals itself around every corner.”

— Lisa See

95. “No man was built to shoulder the full weight of feeding and caring for his family. That was why he had a wife and daughters.”

— Lisa See

96. “I had to hold on to my anger and my bitterness as a way of honoring those I’d lost.”

— Lisa See

97. “Store up good deeds and you will meet with good. Store up evil actions and you will meet with evil.”

— Lisa See

98. “It is our duty to be keepers and managers of the sea. If we protect our wet fields, they will continue to provide for us.”

— Lisa See

99. “Every one of us could complain, but would that make our situation emotionally easier or physically more comfortable?”

— Lisa See

100. “You are a little girl, so you are still in milk days.”

— Lisa See