Thanhha Lai Quotes & Sayings

Why no s for two deer,
but an s for two monkeys?
Brother Quang says
no one knows.
So much for rules!
Whoever invented English should be bitten by a snake. — Thanhha Lai

Mother tells me,
They tease you
because they adore you. — Thanhha Lai

I tell you of loss, my child, so you will listen, slowly, and know that in life every emotion is fated to rear itself within your being. Don't judge it proper or ugly. It's simply there and yours. When you should happen to cry, then cry, knowing that just as easily you will laugh again and cry again. Your feelings will enter the currents of your core and there they shall remain — Thanhha Lai

No, Mr. Johnston doesn't have a horse, nor has he ever ridden one. What kind of a cowboy is he? — Thanhha Lai

Whoever invented English
should have learned
to spell. — Thanhha Lai

Being stubborn won't make you fluent. Practicing will! The more mistakes you make, the more you'll learn not to. — Thanhha Lai

We glide and I feel as if I'm floating. — Thanhha Lai

How can we scramble away like rats, without honor, without dignity, when everyone must help rebuild the country? — Thanhha Lai

Black seeds spill like clusters of eyes, wet and crying. — Thanhha Lai

All day
I practice
squeezing hisses
through my teeth.

Whoever invented
English
must have loved
snakes. — Thanhha Lai

I step back,
hating pity,
having learned
from Mother that
the pity giver
feels better,
never the pity receiver. — Thanhha Lai

MiSSS SScott
points to the numbers
along the wall.
I count up to twenty.
The class claps
on its own.
I'm furious,
unable to explain
I already learned
fractions and how to purify water.
So this is what dumb feels like. I hate, hate,
hate it. — Thanhha Lai

Our lives
will twist and twist,
intermingling the old and the new
until it doesn't matter
which is which. — Thanhha Lai

People living on others' goodwill cannot afford political opinions. — Thanhha Lai

No one would believe me but at times I would choose wartime in Saigon over peacetime in Alabama.-Inside Out and Back Again — Thanhha Lai

Everyone knows the ship could sink, unable to hold the piles of bodies that keep crawling on like raging ants from a disrupted nest. But no one is heartless enough to say stop because what if they had been stopped before their turn? — Thanhha Lai

I wish
our cowboy could be persuaded
to buy a horse,

that I could be invisible
until I can talk back — Thanhha Lai

I hate being told I can't do something because I'm a girl! — Thanhha Lai

Mother says,
People share
when they know they have escaped hunger.
Shouldn't people share
because there is hunger? — Thanhha Lai

Would be simpler
if English
and life
were logical — Thanhha Lai

My curse: rebellious in my head but oh-so-lovely in real life. — Thanhha Lai

I tell you of my loss, child, so you will listen, slowly, and know that in life every emotion is fated to rear itself within your being. Don't judge it proper or ugly. It's simply there and yours. — Thanhha Lai

This year I hope
I truly learn
to fly-kick
not to kick anyone
so much as
to fly. — Thanhha Lai

Mother warns
how we act today
foretells the whole year — Thanhha Lai

Oh, my daughter,
at times you have to fight,
but preferably
not with your fists. — Thanhha Lai

Do not waste ... Don't waste the vegetable-washing water, splash it on the grapefruit tree instead ... Don't waste anything made of glass or plastic because glass and plastic can be reused ad nauseam ... Don't waste ... a string for retying, a rubber band for conquering dry noodles or hair, rice bags for dishcloths, fish bones for fertilizer ... Anything that comes out of the earth must be returned to the earth ... "If everyone uses more than their share, how can the earth support us?" — Thanhha Lai

Mostly, I wish I were still smart. — Thanhha Lai

I'm trying to tell
MiSSSisss WaSShington
about our ceremony for Father.
But it takes time to
match every noun and verb,
sort all the tenses,
remember all the articles,
set the tone for every s.
MiSSSisss WaSShington says
if every learner waits
to speak perfectly,
no one would learn
a new language.
Being stubborn
won't make you fluent.
Practicing will!
The more mistakes you make,
the more you'll learn not to.
They laugh. — Thanhha Lai