Room to Dream Quotes

“Friendship is kind of like a river -- there are ebbs and flows. Just because you're in an ebb doesn't mean the whole river's dried up.”
― Kelly Yang, Room to Dream

“Going to school in America is sort of like learning to swim … in the ocean.”
― Kelly Yang, Room to Dream

“You can’t win if you don’t play!”
― Kelly Yang, Room to Dream

“Labels were like soda cans -- they get thrown around a lot, but if you crush them with your feet, they don't take up any space at all.”
― Kelly Yang, Room to Dream

“You can’t win if you don’t play.”
― Kelly Yang, Room to Dream

“As a small business owner, I refuse to give up or to be intimidated. I think the only way to compete with big business is with big heart.”
― Kelly Yang, Room to Dream

“My sentences were such potato chips compared to his literary souffles.”
― Kelly Yang, Room to Dream

“...sometimes things got harder to tell the longer you waited.”
― Kelly Yang, Room to Dream

“Sometimes we're a lot less alone than we think. All we have to do is look around.”
― Kelly Yang, Room to Dream

“Stay close with your family, little one. In the end, the only thing that matters...is family.”
― Kelly Yang, Room to Dream

“he told me he liked me and I told him I’d rather like a rock.”
― Kelly Yang, Room to Dream

“and my favorite stationery store, where I got my sparkly green pencil. It closed because it couldn’t compete with the Office Depot.”
― Kelly Yang, Room to Dream

“I’m not afraid anymore, because I know I can handle anything with my best friend by my side.”
― Kelly Yang, Room to Dream

“Where the Red Fern Grows.”
― Kelly Yang, Room to Dream

“No. You know what, forget about the spaceship,” I said, realizing maybe it was a poor analogy. “So Lupe just stopped coming around?” he asked. “She probably has too much homework. I can’t imagine going to the high school; I’m already buried in homework as it is! And I’m only in middle school!” I chuckled. “How are the kids at your school treating you? Tell them if they don’t leave you alone, I’ll totally write about them in my column!” “Thanks,” Shen said with a laugh. “And yeah, they’re leaving me alone. For now.” I smiled. “Good.” “Do you miss China?” Shen asked. “I miss everything! Lao Lao’s mantou and the jianbingguozi at breakfast. I miss the snow, the seniors exercising in the park, and Popsicle Grandpa. I even miss the squat toilets.” I chortled. “Okay, maybe I don’t miss those.” “Well, I miss pulling you out of them.” Shen giggled, and then we both sighed at the same time. “Wish you lived closer,” he said. “Me too.” “Mia, time to get off,” Mom said, tapping at an imaginary watch on her wrist. I groaned. “I gotta go,” I told Shen. “Awwww,” he said.”
― Kelly Yang, Room to Dream

“obviously”
― Kelly Yang, Room to Dream

“Sometimes a loss isn't really a loss. It's an opportunity. You just can't see it yet.”
― Kelly Yang, Room to Dream

“You can't just bottle up the bad stuff and only tell people the good.”
― Kelly Yang, Room to Dream

“The time will flash by like vroom.”
― Kelly Yang, Room to Dream

“If school’s like the ocean, middle school is like the Mariana Trench, filled with stinging jellyfish.”
― Kelly Yang, Room to Dream

“Fan mail??”
― Kelly Yang, Room to Dream

“A biotech firm?”
― Kelly Yang, Room to Dream

“I started telling him about how when we first got to America, we had to live in Old Man Jimmy’s garage. Old Man Jimmy was an out-of-work truck driver who rented half his garage to us for $200 a month. I would go to sleep curled up next to his Dodge Charger, Shelby, and wake up every morning to the jingle of his keys. Even when we moved out, my parents’ jobs were barely enough to pay for a small one-bedroom apartment. That’s when we applied for a job working and living at the Calivista Motel. But of course the owner, Jason’s dad, turned out to be a real miser.”
― Kelly Yang, Room to Dream

“Diary of a Young American Girl!”
― Kelly Yang, Room to Dream

“But it’s always better to have a fishing rod than a bunch of fish,”
― Kelly Yang, Room to Dream

“Everyone respects white-people food!”
― Kelly Yang, Room to Dream

“That's a lot of butter," I said, trying to distract everyone. IT was true too: There were about thirty sticks, enough to make a croissant the size of a car.”
― Kelly Yang, Room to Dream

“Some things were easier to say to four hundred thousand people than to just one.”
― Kelly Yang, Room to Dream