The Song of Everlasting Sorrow Quotes

“But do not look down on even the most minute of things; for with the coming of daybreak, even the tiniest particles of dust in this world sing and dance in the sunlight.”
― Anyi Wang, The Song of Everlasting Sorrow: A Novel of Shanghai

“Being extra nice to someone can be a form of manipulation--kindness is an exercise of power in its own right.”
― Wang Anyi, The Song of Everlasting Sorrow: A Novel of Shanghai

“How quiet indeed that moment was. One could even hear the clapper of a street peddler selling porridge flavored with osmanthus blossoms -- a shadow of the everyday world creeping into this peculiar place.”
― Wang Anyi, The Song of Everlasting Sorrow: A Novel of Shanghai

“She had naturally high aspirations, but having come to terms with the limitations imposed by her environment, she developed a habit of splashing cold water on her hopes.”
― Wang Anyi, The Song of Everlasting Sorrow: A Novel of Shanghai

“Like most Shanghai residents who had lived through such sweeping historical changes, they regarded the Communist Party as unapproachable, and saw themselves as people left over from a previous era. Moreover, living in the heart of society, caught up in the swirl of everyday life, they barely had a chance to develop a coherent opinion of themselves, let alone grand concepts like "the nation" or "political power." They are not to be faulted for their narrow frame of reference, because a large city is like a huge machine that turns according to the principles dictated by its own structure; only its tiniest components have a human texture, and it is these tiny components that people hold on to, otherwise they would fall into the vacuum of abstraction.”
― Wang Anyi, The Song of Everlasting Sorrow: A Novel of Shanghai

“There was a note on the table: Together in this life—who needs a next life?”
― Wang Anyi, The Song of Everlasting Sorrow: A Novel of Shanghai

“Naturally, love, which was the requisite theme, had to be part of the story.”
― Wang Anyi, The Song of Everlasting Sorrow: A Novel of Shanghai

“One might call fashion the product of vanity, but one must never underestimate it, for it carries with it the
spirit of the age.”
― Wang Anyi, The Song of Everlasting Sorrow: A Novel of Shanghai

“For Shanghai women old clothes are the shells they shed during their metamorphoses. Their age is shown through their clothing; but the heart lying beneath the garments sometimes forgets to grow up.”
― Wang Anyi, The Song of Everlasting Sorrow: A Novel of Shanghai

“One should not look down on this eagerness to be trendy—it belongs to the heart that is common to all. Day after day, night after night, it is this desire that holds up and sustain this city’s prosperity. This common heart, being pure and clear, is best able to take stock of the changing times. Like the evergreen, it is eternal.”
― Wang Anyi, The Song of Everlasting Sorrow: A Novel of Shanghai

“With Wang Qiyao’s flowery apron around his waist and a pair of protective sleeves over his shirt, he brought the meal to Wang Qiyao’s bedside, his hair mussed up, his forehead oily and perspiring, his eyes aglow with excitement. Tears rolled down her cheeks and into her bowl as she ate. Kang Mingxun watched helplessly on one side, looking very much like a waiter on duty. Soon he too became teary. They could no longer put it off: a decision had to be made.”
― Wang Anyi, The Song of Everlasting Sorrow: A Novel of Shanghai

“After all, life flows like water through one’s fingers, and eternity is but an illusion. Once we have come to terms with that, nothing else really matters.”
― Wang Anyi, The Song of Everlasting Sorrow: A Novel of Shanghai

“Each was acting out of self-interest—but a heart driven by self-interest is still a heart and, having a heart, one must feel the joys and sorrows of life.”
― Wang Anyi, The Song of Everlasting Sorrow: A Novel of Shanghai

“They sat in silence, each smiling wryly inside, wordlessly imploring the other to give way. Yet who could afford to give way? With only one life to live, neither was willing to roll over for the other.”
― Wang Anyi, The Song of Everlasting Sorrow: A Novel of Shanghai

“The sky darkened a bit more as if it too had lowered its voice to listen to people speaking their hearts.”
― Wang Anyi, The Song of Everlasting Sorrow: A Novel of Shanghai

“Nothing marvelous had happened to Wang Qiyao, but through careful cultivation her life had also sprouted countless little sprigs that held the promise of developing into something.”
― Wang Anyi, The Song of Everlasting Sorrow: A Novel of Shanghai

“The flesh and blood breaking off from a woman’s
body remain linked to her forever.”
― Wang Anyi, The Song of Everlasting Sorrow: A Novel of Shanghai

“Loneliness added to loneliness.”
― Wang Anyi, The Song of Everlasting Sorrow: A Novel of Shanghai

“What might have faded away naturally over time became etched in stone.”
― Wang Anyi, The Song of Everlasting Sorrow: A Novel of Shanghai

“What might have faded away naturally over time became etched in stone”
― Wang Anyi, The Song of Everlasting Sorrow: A Novel of Shanghai

“This was a love engendered by waiting, a tenderness that contained more sorrow than joy, an affection that tried to make the most of what they had.”
― Wang Anyi, The Song of Everlasting Sorrow: A Novel of Shanghai

“Here is a fantasy land purchased at the price of loneliness and relinquished youth.”
― Wang Anyi, The Song of Everlasting Sorrow: A Novel of Shanghai

“What moves you about the longtang of Shanghai stems from the most mundane scenes: not the surging rush of clouds and rain, but something steadily accumulated over time. It is the excitement of cooking smoke and human vitality. Something is flowing through the longtang that is unpredictable yet entirely rational, small, not large, and trivial—but then even a castle can be made out of sand. It has nothing to do with things like “history,” not even “unofficial history”: we can only call it gossip.”
― Wang Anyi, The Song of Everlasting Sorrow: A Novel of Shanghai

“Here was the apparition he had been yearning for day and night, the dream he had hoped would never end.”
― Wang Anyi, The Song of Everlasting Sorrow: A Novel of Shanghai

“A pity that those two hearts were not on the same path; the more genuine they were, the more difficult it was for them ever to meet.”
― Wang Anyi, The Song of Everlasting Sorrow: A Novel of Shanghai

“A twenty-six-year-old heart has already begun to grow a shell; the shell may have some cracks and fissures, but by the age of thirty-six any remaining fissures would have been sealed.”
― Wang Anyi, The Song of Everlasting Sorrow: A Novel of Shanghai

“Gone, never to return, but the memory hangs on for all of eternity.”
― Wang Anyi, The Song of Everlasting Sorrow: A Novel of Shanghai

“Only after shifting her gaze to the woman under the lamplight did she suddenly realize that the actress was pretending to be dead—but she could not tell if the woman was meant to have been murdered or to have committed suicide. The strange thing was that this scene did not terrifying or foreboding, only annoyingly familiar.”
― Wang Anyi, The Song of Everlasting Sorrow: A Novel of Shanghai

“As you approach Wu Bridge by boat below a drizzling sky, going under the arch of one bridge after another, you feel as if you have passed through many imposing gates.”
― Wang Anyi, The Song of Everlasting Sorrow: A Novel of Shanghai

“Everything at Wu Bridge -- the roads, the bridges, the houses, the pickled vegetables in the pantries, the jars of wine buried in the ground -- has been accumulated day by day, generation by generation.”
― Wang Anyi, The Song of Everlasting Sorrow: A Novel of Shanghai