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Nu shu means women's writing. And it was a secret writing system that was invented by women, used by women and kept a secret by women in one very remote county in China for a thousand years. It's the only language that was invented and used by women to have been found anywhere in the world.
Lisa See -
I didn't know you would be here last night, but you were. We can't fight fate. Instead, we must accept that fate has given us a special opportunity.
Lisa See
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In every message she spoke of birds, of flight, of the world away. Even back then, she flew against what was presented to her. I wanted to cling to her wings and soar, no matter how intimidated I was.
Lisa See -
A brave heart? It feels like a swollen and aching thing in my chest.
Lisa See -
Dreaming, dreaming, dreaming -- weren't our dreams what gave us strength, hope, and desire?
Lisa See -
One of the things that's pretty unique about nu shu, when you look especially at these old letters and stories that have been saved, is that there are certain lines that are very standard that are used again and again. It's almost like a formula in a sense, so that these certain lines come up again and again.
Lisa See -
Obey, obey, obey, then do what you want.
Lisa See -
When the sun is shining, think of the time it won't be, because even when you're sitting in your house with the doors shut, misfortune can fall from above. Page 279
Lisa See
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In that moment I understood that the cruelest words in the universe are if only.
Lisa See -
All women on earth-- and men, too for that matter-- hope for the kind of love that transforms us, raises us up out of the everyday, & gives us the courage to survive our little deaths: the heartache of unfulfilled dreams, of career and personal disappointments, of broken love affairs.
Lisa See -
I don't really know anything about the movie business, even though I've lived in Los Angeles my whole life - somehow I've never bumped into it.
Lisa See -
What stays with me most is a general sense of loss, unease, and longing for the past that cannot be relieved.
Lisa See -
How can we not create a fantasy in our minds when the reality is so hard?
Lisa See -
He was in my hair, my eyes, my fingers, my heart. I day-dreamed about what he was doing, thinking, seeing, smelling, feeling. I could not eat for thoughts of him.
Lisa See
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Model communes are the ones where the leaders lie the best and the biggest.
Lisa See -
Don't ever feel that you have to hide who you are. Nothing good ever comes from keeping secrets like that.
Lisa See -
For my entire life I longed for love. I knew it was not right for me — as a girl and later as a woman — to want or expect it, but I did, and this unjustified desire has been at the root of every problem I have experienced in my life.
Lisa See -
We're told that men are strong & brave, but I think women know how to endure, accept defeat & bear physical & mental agony much better than men.
Lisa See -
I know a lot about women and their suffering, but I still know almost nothing about men.
Lisa See -
I’ve never thought much about whether I was happy or if I had fun as a child. I was a so-so girl who lived with a so-so family in a so-so village. I didn’t know that there might be another way to live, and I didn’t worry about it either.
Lisa See
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Some of what I am doing when I am researching is looking for things people in my family have done and finding out what those things mean, why they did those things and seeing how I fit into them.
Lisa See -
When you don’t have much, having less isn’t so bad.
Lisa See -
I think all women have a friend who at some point dumped them or betrayed them or deeply disappointed them. And at the same time all women have a friend who they dumped or betrayed or hurt in some way. That's universal in women's friendships.
Lisa See -
A book is one kind of an art form and a film is a different art form. I think as a writer you just have to say, well the book is one thing, and the film is a completely different one.
Lisa See