Two Kinds
Tan 132
”We didn’t immediately pick the right kind of prodigy."
Tan 134
"And after seeing my mother’s disappointed face once again, something inside of me began to die."
Tan 137
"He taught me all these things, and that was how I also learned I could be lazy and get away with mistakes, lots of mistakes."
Tan 139
"I was so caught up in how lovely I looked that at first I didn’t worry about how I would sound. So it was a surprise to me when I hit the first wrong note and I realized something didn’t sound quite right"
Tan 140
"But my mother’s expression was what devastated me: a quiet, blank look that said she had lost everything. I felt the same way,"
Tan 141
"‘No!’ I said, and I now felt stronger, as if my true self had finally emerged. So this was what had been inside me all along."
Tan 144
"And after I played them both a few times, I realized they were two halves of the same song.”