Vi Quotes

“Fortunately, life loves to constantly alter the order of things, thus giving everyone the opportunity to follow it's progress, to live within it.”
― Kim Thúy, Vi

“A body is not a thing. So it can't be new or used or second-hand.”
― Kim Thúy, Vi

“.... I realized that my mother had taught me above all to become as invisible as possible, or at least to transform myself into a shadow so that no one would attack me, to pass through walls and melt into my surroundings. She insisted that in the art of war, the first lesson consisted of mastering one's disappearance, which was at the same time the best attack and the best defense.”
― Kim Thúy, Vi

“The child's success belongs to his parents and ancestors. Every family member is responsible for all the others, out of solidarity. The stronger support the weaker. Otherwise, any personal success would be marred by an inadequate sense of duty and honouring of the clan. In the same way, each individual feels and displays guilt as a result of others' mistakes.”
― Kim Thúy, Vi

“Unlike in Western culture, which encourages expressions of feelings and opinions, the Vietnamese keep them jealously to themselves, and speak of them with great reluctance, because this inner space is the only one inaccessible to others. All the rest, from academic grades to salaries to sleep, is in the public domain, as are love affairs.”
― Kim Thúy, Vi

“And so my father grew up in rapture, and also in a weightless void. He did not count his time in hours, but rather in the number of moves in a game of Chinese checkers, or the number of punishments his mother inflicted in the maids who let drop a bowl or a broom during his naps, or the number of love letters slipped anonymously into the letter box.”
― Kim Thúy, Vi

“The mother reminded her that it was useful to watch over the living, but that nothing could be done for the dead...she had chosen to be with her love. She had freed herself from the burdensome history that was the legacy of a war she had not known, by walking towards the beauty of Nha Trang's sublime sea.”
― Kim Thúy, Vi

“Sundays, we would spend three or four hours at a huge brunch at the Sofitel Hotel, which offered an oasis of food not to be found on the local market: rosettes de Lyon, knuckle of ham, blanquette de veau, brioches, gravlax, cremes brulees, oysters, cassoulet, coq au vin, baba au rhum, sauteed foie gras, langoustines, Paris-Brests, tarte Tatin , a platter with a thousand cheeses. . . . .”
― Kim Thúy, Vi

“Ses absences me faisaient douter de l'existence réelle des soirées passées à ses cotés...”
― Kim Thúy, Vi

“Un corps n'est pas une chose. Il ne peut donc être neuf ou usé ou usagé.”
― Kim Thúy, Vi

“«Si tu m'aimais, et si je t'aimais, comme je t'aimerais.»”
― Kim Thúy, Vi

“Heureusement, la vie aime surprendre et changer constamment l'ordre des choses afin de donner à tous une occasion de suivre des mouvements, d'être à l'intérieur d'elle.”
― Kim Thúy, Vi

“I ett av templen i Angkor tog en gammal dam i sarong min hand och förde mig till en nisch som badade i ljus, där hon knackade mig på bröstet. Ekot av templets tusenåriga stenar fyllde min bröstkorg och gav mig luft att andas igen.”
― Kim Thúy, Vi

“Jag var åtta år när vårt hem försjönk i tystnad.”
― Kim Thúy, Vi