Amy Tan Quotes

All I want is for people, when they read my books, to feel companioned, to feel they're not alone in the world.

Nowadays, I know the true reason I read is to feel less alone, to make a connection with a consciousness other than my own.

I'm drawn to people who share that sense of loss. All actors are trying to repair damaged relationships. I think that might be why I've been drawn to other actors.

I turn to books for a feeling of companionship: for somebody knowing what I have known.

Sitting on a bedroom floor crying is something that makes you feel really alone. If someone's singing about that feeling, you feel bonded to that person.

I write because I want to end my loneliness. Books make people less alone. That, before and after everything else, is what books do. They show us that conversations are possible across distances.

I always hope that people feel less alone when they see a movie that I make. That some part of the story played out on the big screen will resonate for individuals in the audience in a way that gives them comfort.

I think people come to my music just to feel less lonely.

I cannot cure everybody. I cannot help everybody. But to tell the lonely person that I am not far or different from that lonely person, that I am with him or her, that's all I think we can do and we should do.

Writing and reading decrease our sense of isolation. It's like singing on a boat during a terrible storm at sea. You can't stop the raging storm, but singing can change the hearts and spirits of the people who are together on that ship

In my room I'd barely closed my eyes when the blonde from the movie house came along and sang her whole song of sorrow just for me. I helped her put me to sleep, so to speak, and succeeded pretty well... I wasn't entirely alone... It's not possible to sleep alone.

The point of books is to combat loneliness.

The voice of life in me cannot reach the ear of life in you; but let us talk that we may not feel lonely.

I had this wild thought that he was the only one in all this chaos who was just like me, and that was comforting and profound all at once.

For me a book has always been a chance to reach out and connect to someone and not be alone.

The most incredible gift you can give someone in a video is to help them feel less alone... The things that make us feel the most alone, have the greatest power to connect us

When we are most alone is when we embrace another's loneliness.

We read to know that we are not alone.

It's often just enough to be with someone. I don't need to touch them. Not even talk. A feeling passes between you both. You're not alone.

Stories can encourage us and embolden us to face ourselves and to feel. Stories can make us feel less alone. If we're reading a story that moves us, we can feel that emotion that I feel towards my father or mother or girlfriend. So they can give us late-night company.

Sometimes music, movies and books are the only things that let us feel like someone else feels like we do.

I think there's just so many people in the world that don't feel understood, and when you hear a song and you go, 'Oh, that song understands me,' that's an amazing feeling. I get it when I listen to the radio... That's a beautiful part of music.

I do, indeed, close my door at times and surrender myself to a book, but only because I can open the door again and see a human face looking at me.

I love nicknames. It makes me feel loved. It makes me feel less alone in this world.

I think that's what poetry does. It allows people to come together and identify with a common thing that is outside of themselves, but which they identify with from the interior.