Kai Lee Phomphakdy > Kai Lee's Quotes

“Look, I'm not here to lecture you about Eurocentricity or media bias; I just want to put forth the idea that maybe China has been the punching bag of the West for a very, very long time, and that nothing is gained from the continued demonization of its people... of my people. If you can accept that a single country can give birth to both a Donald Trump and a Donald Glover, a Steve Carell and a Stone Cold Steve Austin, you shouldn't have any difficulty accepting that the 1.3 billion people who call China home are just as varied in their ideologies and philosophies. There are the party officials, the pure-of-heart idealists, the Crazy Rich Asians, the activists, the social media influencers (smash that subscribe button!), the internet trolls and every conceivable thing in between–but perhaps most of all, there are the families like my parents, who simply did their best to stay out of trouble and survive from one day to the next.”
― Simu Liu, We Were Dreamers: An Immigrant Superhero Origin Story

“【 Satisfaction points +500! Congratulations! Congratulations! Congratulations! Important things must be said three times! 】”
― Mò Xiāng Tóng Xiù, The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System: Ren Zha Fanpai Zijiu Xitong (Novel) Vol. 2

“Just for the record, the weather today is calm and sunny, but the air is full of bullshit.”
― Chuck Palahniuk, Diary

“We all die. The goal isn't to live forever, the goal is to create something that will.”
― Chuck Palahniuk, Diary

“Anyone who thinks sitting in church can make you a Christian must also think that sitting in a garage can make you a car.”
― Garrison Keillor

“Reality continues to ruin my life.”
― Bill Watterson, The Complete Calvin and Hobbes

“Exchanging I love yous was a uniquely Western custom, and I had long ago come to terms with the fact that my parents expressed their love in a very different way—by telling me to put on a jacket, asking if I had eaten yet, or yelling at me when they felt like I wasn’t studying hard enough. The actual words were not a part of our family’s vocabulary at all.”
― Simu Liu, We Were Dreamers: An Immigrant Superhero Origin Story – A New York Times Bestselling Memoir of Identity and Hollywood Stardom

“There was no shame in doing what you had to in order to make ends meet; it was just life.”
― Simu Liu, We Were Dreamers: An Immigrant Superhero Origin Story

“How did you die?"
"We er....drowned in a bathtub."
"All three of you?"
"It was a big bathtub.”
― Rick Riordan, The Lightning Thief

“Malka's flame burns for one hour, then one day, one year. It has not stopped burning since. And I have not stopped running. You were warned. The story as it is, it's not the story as we wish it were, but then again, it is not a story at all. It is our world. A dead child is a dead child. A massacre is a massacre. Memories must be told. Hens beget hens. Mothers beget children who beget daughters of their own. Generations pass and suddenly we forget. Our descendants are born yearning and they do not know why, for they have forgotten. Their hands are full of fire, their legs are trembling to flee. A body remembers. The soured air remembers. We cannot forget. I cannot forget. And if I am to remember, so too, I vow, will you.”
― GennaRose Nethercott, Thistlefoot

“She put out her hand. “Kill the lantern,” she said. There was no more hesitation in her voice. Isaac smiled. He took her hand in his and shook. “Raise the ghost.”
― GennaRose Nethercott, Thistlefoot

“There are moments for sorrow and there are moments for rage. Both, born from grief. Sorrow is long-lasting. It can become a companion if you let it. A stray cat who refuses to leave for side. There will be a time for sorrow, as sorrow, like a cat, has many lives. Rage is brief. It ravages the body like house fire, consuming and powerful. This-this-is the time for rage.”
― GennaRose Nethercott, Thistlefoot

“What of the part where memory and loss and yearning are stored? Surely, they were still out there somewhere - gone to wherever the forsaken are banished. Wandering the burnt-out Alabama plantations, the fields rancid with enslaved sorrow. Across tracks built by Chinese rail workers, shot en masse come payday to save a dime. Into full-plotted cemeteries behind Indian boarding schools and beneath the shadows of burning crosses, white hoods peaked like snowcapped mountains. Over the grounds of Manzanar and potter's fields glutted with migrant peach pickers. Who gets remembered in the great American experiment? Who is forgotten? What becomes of those whose names are dust? Tell me this country ain't haunted.”
― GennaRose Nethercott, Thistlefoot

“Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe.”
― Albert Einstein

“God is an absent parent who demands loyalty despite never being around...”
― Andrew Joseph White, Hell Followed With Us

“I’m not in this world to live up to your expectations and you’re not in this world to live up to mine.”
― Bruce Lee

“You think fairy tales are only for girls? Here's a hint - ask yourself who wrote them. I assure you, it wasn't just the women. It's the great male fantasy - all it takes is one dance to know that she's the one. All it takes is the sound of her song from the tower, or a look at her sleeping face. And right away you know - this is the girl in your head, sleeping or dancing or singing in front of you. Yes, girls want their princes, but boys want their princesses just as much. And they don't want a very long courtships. They want to know immediately.”
― David Levithan, Dash & Lily's Book of Dares

“Maybe the was what change was. Cracking open our shields and letting a glimpse of our true selves drip out.”
― Laura Gao, Messy Roots: A Graphic Memoir of a Wuhanese American

“Every time i Struggled to fit into the world around me, I thought if I flew far away enough, like Chang'e, the perfect home would magically appear. But when your roots are tangled up across so many different places, that perfect world may not exist.”
― Laura Gao, Messy Roots: A Graphic Memoir of a Wuhanese American

“To me, language is a map to help you figure out where you are. If you can't read the map, you're lost”
― Trung Le Nguyen, The Magic Fish

“This little book took me eight years to earn.
PASSPORT
United States of America
Was it worth the last eight years of my mother's life?
And what sort of daughter does that
make me?”
― Trung Le Nguyen, The Magic Fish

“And, really, what is the point of tears among so much salt water?”
― Trung Le Nguyen, The Magic Fish

“My past and present selves speak two different languages”
― Trung Le Nguyen, The Magic Fish

“Fairy tales are more than true: not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten.”
― Neil Gaiman, Coraline

“All God does is watch us and kill us when we get boring. We must never, ever be boring.”
― Chuck Palahniuk, Invisible Monsters

“Maybe our favorite quotations say more about us than about the stories and people we're quoting.”
― John Green

“Get busy living or get busy dying.”
― Stephen King, Different Seasons

“Stories of imagination tend to upset those without one.”
― Terry Pratchett

“Men wants us so badly for our bodies, yet hate us so much for our minds.”
― Xiran Jay Zhao, Iron Widow

“Who in the world am I? Ah, that's the great puzzle.”
― Lewis Carroll , Alice in Wonderland