#mothers

Probably there is nothing in human nature more resonant with charges than the flow of energy between two biologically alike bodies, one of which has lain in amniotic bliss inside the other, one of which has labored to give birth to the other. The materials are here for the deepest mutuality and the most painful estrangement. ↗

— Adrienne Rich

#feuds #hate #love #mother #mothers-and-daughters

And then it occurs to me. They are frightened. In me, they see their own daughters, just as ignorant, just as unmindful of all the truths and hopes they have brought to America. They see daughters who grow impatient when their mothers talk in Chinese, who think they are stupid when they explain things in fractured English. They see that joy and luck do not mean the same to their daughters, that to these closed American-born minds "joy luck" is not a word, it does not exist. They see daughters who will bear grandchildren born without any connecting hope passed from generation to generation. ↗

— Amy Tan

#concepts #daughters #family #fear #heritage

Having a little girl has been like following an old treasure map with the important paths torn away. ↗

— Heather Gudenkauf

#mothers-and-daughters #family

Well, Betsy," he said, "your mother tells me that you are going to use Uncle Keith's trunk for a desk. That's fine. You need a desk. I've often noticed how much you like to write. The way you eat up those advertising tablets from the store! I never saw anything like it. I can't understand it though. I never write anything but checks myself. " "Bob!" said Mrs. Ray. "You wrote the most wonderful letters to me before we were married. I still have them, a big bundle of them. Every time I clean house I read them over and cry." "Cry, eh?" said Mr. Ray, grinning. "In spite of what your mother says, Betsy, if you have any talent for writing, it comes from family. Her brother Keith was mighty talented, and maybe you are too. Maybe you're going to be a writer." Betsy was silent, agreeably abashed. "But if you're going to be a writer," he went on, "you've got to read. Good books. Great books. The classics. ↗

— Maud Hart Lovelace

#classics #encouragment #fathers #great-books #mothers

Mothers do not have love affairs. Before their children they have dreams, and after their children they have delusions. If the father is involved somewhere, they have fantasies. ↗

— Bauvard

#family #fathers #funny #humor #love-affairs

I open my heart to her and lay it on the table. ↗

— Jennifer Haigh

#family-secrets #mothers-and-daughers #religion #faith

Lately, Mami’s eyes have been so dark, I don’t like looking into them because I’m afraid I’ll fall in. ↗

— Raquel Cepeda

#eyes #family-relationships #mami #mothers-and-daughters #rocio

Because it is the lot of mothers to remember what no one else cares to, Mrs. Dutta thinks. To tell them over and over until they are lodged, perforce, in family lore. We are the keepers of the heart's dusty corners. ↗

— Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

#mothers #family

Their mothers had finally caught up to them and been proven right. There were consequences after all but they were the consequences to things you didn't even know you'd done. ↗

— Margaret Atwood

#been #caught #consequences #done #even

Saying you're through with romance is like saying you're done with living, Betty. Life is better with a little romance, you know. ↗

— Gabrielle Zevin

#boyfriends #granddaughters #grandmothers #life #romance