Yiyun Li Quotes

When the dead departed, they took away any falsehoods that they might have allowed us to believe while alive; we who are left behind have to embark on a different life, since the dead are no longer here to help us deceive ourselves.

It was not about keeping a man; it was a lesson on how not to become an ugly woman.

A woman accepted anything from life and made it the best; a man bargained for the better but also the less perfect.

Does marriage have such a revolutionary power that a long-established habit can be overthrown in such a short time?

There is nothing selfish, dazzling, or preposterous about dreamers; in everyday life they blend in rather than stand out, though it's not hiding. A real dreamer must have a mutual trust with time.

But whose problem is it when you make people talk about you?"

"Theirs.

She wonders if this is what people call falling in love, the desire to be with someone for every minute of the rest of her life so strong that sometimes she is frightened of herself.