Inside Out & Back Again

“Oh, my daughter,at times you have to fight, but preferably not with your fists.”

“Mother says,People sharewhen they know they have escaped hunger.Shouldn't people sharebecause there is hunger?”

“This year I hopeI truly learnto fly-kicknot to kick anyoneso much asto fly.”

“Whoever invented Englishshould have learnedto spell.”

“People living on others' goodwill cannot afford political opinions.”

“Mother tells me,They tease youbecause they adore you.”

“How can we scramble away like rats, without honor, without dignity, when everyone must help rebuild the country?”

“Mother warns how we act todayforetells the whole year”

“Paperwork, paperwork with a woman who pats my head while shaking her own. I step back, hating pity, having learned from Mother that the pity giver feels better, never the pity receiver.”

“Everyone knows the ship could sink, unable to hold the piles of bodies that keep crawling on like raging ants from a disrupted nest. But no one is heartless enough to say stop because what if they had been stopped before their turn?”

“Our liveswill twist and twist,intermingling the old and the newuntil it doesn't matterwhich is which.”

“Why no s for two deer,but an s for two monkeys?Brother Quang saysno one knows.So much for rules!Whoever invented English should be bitten by a snake.”

“I step back,hating pity,having learnedfrom Mother thatthe pity giverfeels better,never the pity receiver.”

“No, Mr. Johnston doesn't have a horse, nor has he ever ridden one. What kind of a cowboy is he?”

“She was promised to Father at five. They married at sixteen, earlier than expected. Everyone’s future changed upon learning the name H Chí Minh.”

“I’m practicingto be seen.”

“We glide and I feel as if I'm floating.”

“Black seeds spill like clusters of eyes, wet and crying.”

“Mostly, I wish I were still smart.”

“best”

“Mostly I wish I were still smart.”

“Oh, my daughter, at times you have to fight, but preferably not with your fists.”

“I can't make my brothersgo live elsehwere,but I canhide their sandals.”

“Whoever invented English should have learned to spell.”

“...every language has annoyances and illogical rules, as well as sensible beauty.”

“Some verbsswitch all overjust because. I amShe isThey areHe wasThey wereWould be simpler if Englishand livewere logical.”

“MiSSS SScottpoints to the numbersalong the wall.I count up to twenty.The class clapson its own.I’m furious,unable to explainI already learnedfractions and how to purify water.So this is what dumb feels like. I hate, hate,hate it.”

“People share when they know they have escaped hunger. Shouldn’t people share because there is hunger?”

“We must consider the shame of abandoning our own country and begging toward the unknown where we will all begin again at the lowest level on the social scale.”

“People living on others' goodwillcannot affordpolitical opinion.”