Quotes by Andrew Lam

Andrew Lam

All three of my books, “Perfume Dreams: Reflections on the Vietnamese Diaspora,” “East Eats West: Writing in Two Hemispheres,” and “Birds of Paradise Lost,” are immigrant narratives – their dreams, their traumas, their struggles – and I write them with the confidence that these stories, written from the heart, will belong, in time, to America.

Book

Dream

Struggle

America’s story is largely an immigrant story. That hasn’t changed since the Pilgrims ate their first turkey some four hundred years ago, and they were the original boat people.

America

Turkeys

Years

As a Vietnamese refugee who became an American writer, I can tell you that you matter, that your sadness matters, the story of how you survived and triumphed matters. For every story that belongs to you, in time, belongs to America.

America

Sadness

Stories

I am glad to see the wheels are moving at last toward comprehensive immigration reform after last year’s election. I am glad that immigrants are speaking up.

Moving

Speaking Up

Years

I have a funny story to tell about English and how I came to fall in love with the language. I was desperate to fit in and spoke English all the time. Trouble was, in my household it was a no-no to speak English because somehow it is disrespectful to call parents and grandparents “you” – impersonal pronouns are offensive in Vietnamese.

Falling In Love

Grandparent

Speak English

I think in a larger sense, immigrant narrative is comprehensive and speaks to the core of human experience.

Narrative

Speak

Thinking

I’ve been writing short stories for twenty years now, on and off ever since I was in the creative writing program at San Francisco State University.

San Francisco

Writing

Years

In fiction, it’s as if you enter a dream world that you created, but your characters have their own free will. They don’t do what you want them to do – they get into trouble, do drugs, fight over petty things, and do outrageous things that you wouldn’t want your children to do. In other words, you can only provide the background, the seeds – in my case the background of the Vietnamese refugee.

Character

Children

Dream

In non-fiction you have to stay true to historical events, be they personal or national .

Events

Fiction

Historical

In the war on terrorism, the immigrant is often the scapegoat.

Scapegoat

Terrorism

War

Follow The Behaviour University in order to get the greatest quotes from the greatest people of all time so that you can tap into your own greatness.

America

Atmosphere

Book

Careers

Character

Children

Country

Dream

Eden

Events

Fall

Falling In Love

Fiction

First Love

Floating

Grandparent

Historical

Home

Ideas

Identity

Laughing

Leader

Misunderstood

Moving

Narrative

Order

People

Rights

Sadness

San Francisco

Scapegoat

Song

Speak

Speak English

Speaking Up

Spiritual

Stories

Struggle

Terrorism

Thinking

Today

Toxic

Turkeys

Voice

Waiting

War

Writing

Years

The Future Blueprint

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The Home Therapist: Anti Anxiety

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Quotes by Andrew Lam

Andrew Lam

America’s story is largely an immigrant story. That hasn’t changed since the Pilgrims ate their first turkey some four hundred years ago, and they were the original boat people.

As a Vietnamese refugee who became an American writer, I can tell you that you matter, that your sadness matters, the story of how you survived and triumphed matters. For every story that belongs to you, in time, belongs to America.

I am glad to see the wheels are moving at last toward comprehensive immigration reform after last year’s election. I am glad that immigrants are speaking up.

I think in a larger sense, immigrant narrative is comprehensive and speaks to the core of human experience.

I’ve been writing short stories for twenty years now, on and off ever since I was in the creative writing program at San Francisco State University.

In non-fiction you have to stay true to historical events, be they personal or national .

In the war on terrorism, the immigrant is often the scapegoat.

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The Future Blueprint

The Home Therapist: Anti Anxiety

The Autobiography

The Behaviour Diary

The Dating Diary

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