One evening, about three weeks after she met him, their conversation became more personal.
"Frankly, I like living alone,"
she heard herself saying. She had convinced herself this was true.
"And what if you met the ideal partner?"
"He can stay ideal in his place, and I'll stay ideal in mine. Then we won't get into all that shit about whose pubic hair is clogging up the drain."

Amy Tan, The Bonesetter’s Daughter

Free time doesn't exist anymore.
It has to be scheduled with a dollar amount attached to it. You're under this constant pressure to get your money's worth out of rest, relaxation, and restaurants that are hard to get into.

Amy Tan, The Bonesetter’s Daughter

Ruth listened to their laughter on the tape. She had never gone into therapy, as Wendy had. She worked with too many therapists, saw that they were human, full of foibles, in need of help themselves. And while Wendy thought it worthwhile to know that a professional was dedicated to her and her alone for two one-hour sessions a week, Ruth could not justify spending a hundred fifty dollars an hour to listen to herself talk.

Amy Tan, The Bonesetter’s Daughter

It's like part of me thinks everything about him is mine, his feelings, his fantasies. I know that's not right, but emotionally that's how I feel.
His past is my past, it belongs to me. Shit, if I could find his childhood toy box I'd want to look inside that and say, 'Mine.’ I'd want to see what girlie magazines he hid under the mattress and pulled out to masturbate to."

Amy Tan, The Bonesetter’s Daughter

Didn't Mom ever realize, Ruth now mused, how her demands for no secrets drove me to hide even more from her? Yet maybe her mother did sense that. Maybe it made her hide certain truths from Ruth about herself.
Things too bad to say. They could not trust each other. That was how dishonesty and betrayal started, not in big lies but in small secrets.

Amy Tan, The Bonesetter’s Daughter

A customer could point to any jar in the shop and she could read the name of its contents, even the scientific words for animal organs. As she grew older, she learned to bleed a wound with a square nail, to use her own saliva for cleansing sores, to apply a layer of maggots for eating pus, and to wrap torn flaps with woven paper. By the time she passed from childhood to maidenhood, she had heard every kind of scream and curse. She had touched so many bodies, living, dying, and dead, that few families considered her for a bride.

Amy Tan, The Bonesetter’s Daughter

On every street corner, you could hear people from everywhere talking about this: "My situation is this. This is how I can improve my situation." I realized that in Hong Kong, I had come to a place where everyone believed he could change his situation, his fate, no more staying stuck with your circumstances. And there were many ways to change. You could be clever, you could be greedy, you could have connections.

Amy Tan, The Bonesetter’s Daughter

Miss Patsy did not want her mummy to wear diapers because that would be a big insult. So I had to wash, wash, wash, so many clothes, every day. At least Miss Patsy was a nice lady, very polite. If Lady Ina threw her temper, Miss Patsy had to say only three words in a happy voice, “Visitors are here!” and Lady Ina suddenly stopped what she was doing. She would sit down, her crooked back now very straight, her hands folded in her lap. That was how she had been taught from the time she was a young girl. In front of visitors, she had to be a lady, even if it was just pretend.

Amy Tan, The Bonesetter’s Daughter

So much of history is mystery. We don't know what is lost forever, what will surface again. All objects exist in a moment of time And that fragment of time is preserved or lost or found in mysterious ways. Mystery is a wonderful part of life.

Amy Tan, The Bonesetter’s Daughter

Happy women’s day