Amy Tan Quotes

There's so much guilt there attached to having a perfectly good life.

I should have worked harder in my life. I suffer from a guilt complex.

If I sold something, and it didn't perform, I'd never forgive myself.

I'm consumed with what I didn't do. I know I should've come out sooner, and I'm sorry for that.

In retrospect, I had a lot of shortcomings and didn't take care of the things that needed to be taken care of, and that's all my fault.

Guilt: I'm sorry. I made a mistake. Shame: I'm sorry. I am a mistake.

Guilt starts as a feeling of failure.

Guilt is a rope that wears thin.

I think remorse ought to stop biting the consciences that feed it.

I've made far too many mistakes. That's the way I feel.

Permanent remorse about failing to do your human duty, in my opinion, can be worse than losing your life.

I might as well have pulled the trigger myself.

Guilt: the gift that keeps on giving.

I let the American people down.

I felt ashamed for what I had done. I don't have any excuses. I did what I did. I take full responsibility for myself and my actions. I wouldn't pawn this off on anybody. I'm sorry it happened. And I hurt people.

I've gone through that with my mother and father and here I was in a similar situation. I've wronged her and I've wronged the family. Because when these things happen, it doesn't just happen to you, it happens to the people around you and the family.

O conscience, upright and stainless, how bitter a sting to thee is a little fault!

If a movie is received badly, and I'm in only one scene of it, I still feel responsible. I feel like it was my fault at all times. If people were like, 'This movie sucks!' I'd be like, 'Well, that's because I'm terrible.'

I'm a grown woman. I can come up with plenty of things that I've done and said or didn't say or failed to do that remain with me as sources of embarrassment.

The only thing worse than an active conscience is one that's retroactive.

I'm guilty for a lot of things.

I've learned a lot from the investigations and the trial. It's all my fault.

Any time I screw up I feel bad about it.

The one feeling that settled in and stayed there for a long while, and I still deal with, is guilt. I was there. I was a part of it. Why does it have to be like this? Was I responsible? Was I the reason Dale was in that position? I'd ask myself that question and look around at people and wonder if they were thinking that, too.

It's hard when you let people down.