Amy Tan Quotes

We need to kind of refresh our fear in order to refresh our understanding of how a safe place works.

Socially relevant risk is not uncertainty of outcome, or violence of event, or toxicity of substance, or anything of the sort. Rather, it is perceived inability to cope satisfactorily with the world around us.

If you have something specific and visible to fear, rather than something that could be anything, it is easier.

I think what a lot of fiction is, is the imagining of the worst so as to prepare ourselves.

Exploring how you could make a bad situation worse can sometimes tell you what not to do.

I have this fear of clowns, so I think that if I surround myself with them, it will ward off all evil.

Risk will always be a part of life. It's how we recognize this and deal with it that matters.

Apprehension is natural, but it must not be concluded that it is a threat. Certainly not.

It is this compulsion to look backwards at a time of crisis because one's got no idea of what lies ahead. There is a notion of security that somehow it must resemble the past. It's never going to. Just because we muddled through in the past doesn't mean we can automatically muddle through in the future.

People need to learn to live with more risk.

You can’t prepare for the best case; you have to prepare for the worst case.

That's part of your life lesson to be afraid. The bigger question is how you deal with being afraid. Do you have to summon courage or something else to live with that fear without letting it take you over?

None of us live in a zero-risk world.

Some people feel affronted when something they thought to be true doesn't happen. If that's the case, then your sense of risk is much higher, and that leads to risk aversion. You need to be able to be comfortable in uncertainty.

I found that the things I am afraid of most are things for which there are no obvious remedies. Like, what do you do with a fear of death? You either come to terms with it or you don't, but there's no solving it.

Fear is often our immediate response to uncertainty. There's nothing wrong with experiencing fear. They key is not to get stuck in it.

In a lot of ways knowledge kills fear. Once you know who the boogie man is, once you know what's under the bed, it can still be frightening but that fear of the unknown is gone.

You would not get out of bed in the morning if you were constantly worrying about the possibility of something happening to you on your way to work. But it is still something to pay attention to, I think.

Denial is not always a bad thing. Without it, you couldn't function. For instance, if you were hyperaware and hypervigilant regarding all the dangers in the world - from driving your car to crossing the street to eating food that might have contaminants in it to taking medications that have many side effects, etc. - you would become frozen.

Fear is like fire; it can be helpful if you know how to use. If not, you'll get burned.

Don't they get afraid, then?" "They have a religion for that.

Where do you put the fear when you choose to innovate? The fear is there, but you have to find a place to put it.

Fear, as opposed to anxiety, has a definite object, which can be faced, analyzed, attacked, endured... anxiety has no object, or rather, in a paradoxical phrase, its object is the negation of every object.

It is dangerous to live in a secure world.