Girl in Translation Quotes

“What a relationship looks like on the outside isn't the same as what it's like on the inside. You can be more in love with someone in your mind than with the person you see every day.”
― Jean Kwok, Girl in Translation

“Sometimes our fate is different from the one we imagined for ourselves.”
― Jean Kwok, Girl in Translation

“Nobody can change who you are, except for you.”
― Jean Kwok, Girl in Translation

“I never want to love someone like that,not even him,so much that there would be no room left for myself,so much that I wouldn't be able to survive if he left me.”
― Jean Kwok, Girl in Translation

“Brains are beautiful.”
― Jean Kwok, Girl in Translation

“I was a fool. I should have grabbed him when I could have had him all to myself, snatched him up like a ripe mango at the market. But how was I to know that this was what love felt like?”
― Jean Kwok, Girl in Translation

“You may need to change your dreams.”
― Jean Kwok, Girl in Translation

“I have not been so much pushed by winds as pulled forward by the force of my decisions.”
― Jean Kwok, Girl in Translation

“We would be allowed to work and not cause any trouble for her, but she didn't want us to be any more successful than she was”
― Jean Kwok, Girl in Translation

“No matter how flawed someone else may be, that doesn't give us the right to be less than we are, does it? We are decent people and we repay our debts.”
― Jean Kwok, Girl in Translation

“There's a Chinese saying that the fates are winds that blow through our lives from every angle, urging us along the paths of time. Those who are strong-willed may fight the storm and possibly choose their own road, while the weak must go where they are blown. I say I have not been so much pushed by winds as pulled forward by the force of my decisions.”
― Jean Kwok, Girl in Translation

“When I’m with you, I could drink water and be full.”
― Jean Kwok, Girl in Translation

“It may not seem like much - a few kisses in the dark - but it was enough to burn a hole like an ulcer in my heart.”
― Jean Kwok, Girl in Translation

“Dice un proverbio chino que el destino es como un temporal de vientos que, provenientes de todos los rincones, azotan nuestras vidas y nos empujan por las sendas del tiempo; quienes posean fuerza de voluntad, lucharán contra la tormenta y podrán escoger su propio camino, mientras que los débiles acabarán allá adonde los lleve la tempestad.”
― Jean Kwok, Girl in Translation

“I would have chosen statistical probabilities over luck any day.”
― Jean Kwok, Girl in Translation

“You can be more in love with someone in your mind than with the person you see every day”
― Jean Kwok, Girl in Translation

“What Annette couldn't understand was that silence could be a great protector. I couldn't afford to cry when there was no escape. Talking about my problems would only illuminate the lines of my unhappiness in the cold light of day, showing me, as well as her, the things I had been able to bear only because they had been half hidden in the shadows. I couldn't expose myself like that, not even for her.”
― Jean Kwok, Girl in Translation

“All of this made Tyrone a complete outcast with the other kids. I wanted to tell him that I had been like him in Hong Kong, that I knew what it was to be admired and hated at the same time, that I knew it simply amounted to being alone. I wanted to tell him I thought he had beautiful eyes. Like so many things I wanted to say, I never did.”
― Jean Kwok, Girl in Translation

“In those days, I wanted to believe our love was something tangible and permanent, like a good luck charm I could always wear around my neck. Now I know that it was more like the wisp of smoke trailing off a stick of incense: most of what I could hold on to was the memory of the burning, the aftermath of its scent.”
― Jean Kwok, Girl in Translation

“After work, we both caught our breath in front of that fan, sitting on the mattresses on the floor, our backs resting against the wall. Slowly, two yellowish human-shaped stains developed against the cracked paint: a small one for me and a larger one for Ma. Those stains are probably still there in that apartment, and I’ve dreamed about them, about our skin cells, our droplets of oil and sweat, sunk into that porous wall, bits of us that will never escape.”
― Jean Kwok, Girl in Translation

“I felt surrounded by the warmth of Annette’s friendship, by her confidence in me. I wondered if that had been her plan all along.”
― Jean Kwok, Girl in Translation

“I never want to love someone like that, not even Matt, so much that there would be no room left for myself, so much that I wouldn’t be able to survive if he left me.”
― Jean Kwok, Girl in Translation

“nadie puede cambiar lo que eres, excepto tú misma.”
― Jean Kwok, El Silencio de las Palabras

“Me sentía como un espantapájaros ante una tempestad. En cualquier momento, el viento podría derribarme y esparcir todas las piezas que formaban mi cuerpo. Me despertaría para darme cuenta de que no quedaba nada de mí, ni rastro de la persona que quería ser.”
― Jean Kwok, Girl in Translation

“Avevo perso gran parte del mio interesse per i cosmetici. Non che avessi smesso di preoccuparmi del mio aspetto, anzi, ma non riuscivo a comprendere sino in fondo come si potesse risultare simpatica o bella. Non capivo come funzionavano queste cose.”
― Jean Kwok, Girl in Translation