Restaurant Kid Quotes

“At not even three years old, I learned that life is all about opening a series of doors and hoping someone is present enough to ask, "Where do you want to go?" If they aren't, then it's up to me to figure it out myself.”
― Rachel Phan, Restaurant Kid: A Memoir of Family and Belonging

“As a kid, I hated how absent my parents were. But as an adult, I see how the loss of their own childhoods made it impossible for them to know how to parent. How could they when they didn't even know what childhood looked like, having never experienced it themselves?”
― Rachel Phan, Restaurant Kid: A Memoir of Family and Belonging

“Although it's true my parents were never tiger parents to us, I still feel the pressure to succeed at all costs. My parents crossed an ocean, started from scratch in a completely new land, and worked their bodies to the bone to give us everything we could ever ask for.”
― Rachel Phan, Restaurant Kid: A Memoir of Family and Belonging

“I watch the way they work long-hours days, every single day, to build a stable life in their new country. I tell myself their sacrifices have to be worth it in the long run. I have to succeed, do better, make it all worthwhile.”
― Rachel Phan, Restaurant Kid: A Memoir of Family and Belonging

“I'm never allowed to forget I am Chinese, no matter how hard I try to distance myself from it. I am never allowed to forget that I am different. I am never allowed to relax. I can never just exist.”
― Rachel Phan, Restaurant Kid: A Memoir of Family and Belonging