Amy Tan Quotes

I don't like the idea of a book being a test or being used for a test. The way - in my opinion - to make good readers is to let kids choose their own books and not test them.

There are no fixed notions on what I should pick up or follow, it has to first appeal to me.

A man ought to read just as inclination leads him, for what he reads as a task will do him little good.

Play is always voluntary. What might otherwise be play is work if it's forced.

In education, as in religion and love, compulsion thwarts the purpose for which it is employed.

No lasting gain has ever come from compulsion.

You can choose what you do, you cant choose what you like to do.

If people don't want to go to the picture, nobody can stop them.

I think sometimes parents and teachers can push children away from reading by telling them it's something they must do, the same way they must eat their greens and must pass their exams in school. Poppycock! Read or don't read - that's your call.

I only do what I like to do.

My rule of thumb is that I want to do things I'd like to go and see myself.

I am ready to do everything for the people, but nothing under compulsion by the people.

It would be better that England should be free than that England should be compulsorily sober.

It is never easy to cleanly distinguish freedom and duty, consent and bondage, choice and compulsion.

If a motive affects me, and I am compelled to act on it because it proves to be the 'strongest' of its kind, then the thought of freedom ceases to have any meaning. How should it matter to me whether I can do a thing or not, if I am forced by the motive to do it?

I fell in love with reading when I was allowed to choose whatever books I wanted to check out of the library.

You can't push and force people to do what they don't want to do.

Football, for me, wasn't a foregone conclusion. My parents didn't force me into it, and quite the opposite happened.

No human power can force the intrenchments of the human mind: compulsion never persuades; it only makes hypocrites.

The freedom of individuals from compulsion or coercion never was, and is not now, the normal state of human affairs. The normal state for the ordinary person is tyranny, arbitrary control and abuse mainly by their own government.

I wasn't interested in the kinds of books that I thought I should be reading.

People like what they like. They're gonna do what they're gonna do.

Coercion or compulsion never brings about growth. It is freedom that accelerates evolution.

Eat this sweetish segment or spit it out. You are free.

Reader's Bill of Rights 1. The right to not read 2. The right to skip pages 3. The right to not finish 4. The right to reread 5. The right to read anything 6. The right to escapism 7. The right to read anywhere 8. The right to browse 9. The right to read out loud 10. The right to not defend your tastes