“I learned to make my mind large, as the universe is large, so that the...” — Maxine Hong Kingston Quote

I learned to make my mind large, as the universe is large, so that there is room for contradictions.

I have found things that I could have done better in 'The Woman Warrior.' But then I thought: Let the work of one's youth just stand.

Hunger also changes the world - when eating can't be a habit, then neither can seeing.

It seems that writing chose me. I feel that because I know history, and I know the history of so many cultures; I have lived a large life.

There can't be a pure myth, especially when the myth has been handed down in the oral tradition. As the stories are told, they change. If the stories don't change they just die.

Documentaries can embrace contradictions in a way that journalism can't.

My books have contradictions all the time - and people are fine with that.

Propositions show what they say: tautologies and contradictions show that they say nothing.

I like contradictions, and I like exceptions. I don't like rules and dogma.

An essay is not an op-ed that tells its reader what to think. An essay is a complicated working-out of one's own contradictions and complicities.