Maxine Hong Kingston
Maxine Hong Kingston
Maxine Hong Kingstonis a Chinese American author and Professor Emerita at the University of California, Berkeley, where she graduated with a BA in English in 1962. Kingston has written three novels and several works of non-fiction about the experiences of Chinese immigrants living in the United States...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionWriter
Date of Birth27 October 1940
CountryUnited States of America
writing stories
I've been writing since I was 7, but before that, I was orally making stories.
book thinking mind
When I am composing, I try to clear my mind of having to publish, or having to sell a book or find readers. That kind of thinking gets in the way.
oral-tradition stories dont-change
There can't be a pure myth, especially when the myth has been handed down in the oral tradition. As the stories are told, they change. If the stories don't change they just die.
teacher target
I learned to shoot more accurately because my teachers held the targets.
differences mad people
The difference between mad people and sane people... is that sane people have variety when they talk-story. Mad people have only one story that they talk over and over.
ideas ephemeral definitions
The images of peace are ephemeral. The language of peace is subtle. The reasons for peace, the definitions of peace, the very idea of peace have to be invented, and invented again
hard-work sweat grace
The sweat of hard work is not to be displayed. It is much more graceful to appear favored by the gods.
years want pages
Let my life as Poet begin. I want the life of the Poet. I have labored for over twelve years, one thousand pages of prose. Now, I want the easiness of poetry. The brevity of the poem.
mother said
You must not tell anyone,' my mother said, 'what I am about to tell you.'
new-year work flower
To shut the door at the end of the workday, which does not spill over into evening. To throw away books after reading them so theydon't have to be dusted. To go through boxes on New Year's Eve and throw out half of what is inside. Sometimes for extravagance to pick a bunch of flowers for the one table. Other women besides me must have this daydream about a carefree life.
parent underwear jam
Before we can leave our parents, they stuff our heads like the suitcases which they jam-pack with homemade underwear.
beautiful country gratitude
Reading Ngo Tu Lap's poems, terrible nostalgia wells up in me- nostalgia for a lost time and a far-gone country, nostalgia for people I've loved, and for creatures of forests and rivers. I feel gratitude too. War is over. Peace arrives with these beautiful poems.
inspiring revenge people
The swordswoman and I are not so dissimilar. May my people understand the resemblance soon so that I can return to them. What we have in common are the words at our backs. 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.
rooms daydreaming mess
Not many women got to live out the daydream of women—to have a room, even a section of a room, that only gets messed up when she messes it up herself.