Maxine Hong Kingston Quotes

The sweat of hard work is not to be displayed. It is much more graceful to appear to be favored by the gods.

No husband of mine will say, "I could have been a drummer, but I had to think about the wife and kids. You know how it is." Nobody supports me at the expense of his own adventure.

The idioms for revenge are "report a crime" and "report to five families." The reporting is the vengeance—not the beheading, not the gutting, but the words.

The Revolution put an end to prostitution by giving women what they wanted: a job and a room of their own.

...I've learned exactly who the enemy are. I easily recognize them—business-suited in their modern American executive guise, each boss two feet taller than I am and impossible to meet eye to eye.

My job is my own only land.