Joy Luck Club
Lindo (age 15, before seeing her husband for the first time) I have prayed to the gods many days for you, so that you were not too ugly or too old. (She sees her husband and realizes he is a boy.) I must have prayed too hard.
Lena: (to husband) Why do you have to be so goddamn fair?!
Lindo: I told them the matchmaker had made the wrong match on purpose, just for money.
Huang Tai Tai: Matchmaker, how could you? How could you?
Matchmaker: Well, mistakes happen in heaven.
June: I’m just sorry that you got stuck with such a loser, that I’ve always been so disappointing.
Suyuan: What you mean disappoint? Piano?
June: Everything! My grades, my job, not getting married, everything you expected of me.
Suyuan: Not expect anything! Never expect! Only hope! Only hoping best for you. That’s not wrong, to hope.
June: No? Well, it hurts, because every time you hoped for something I couldn’t deliver, it hurt. It hurt me, Mommy. And no matter what you hope for, I’ll never be more than what I am. And you never see that, what I really am.
Ted: You know, I always knew you were a, a jerk, but shit, this is the first time in my life I am ashamed of you.
Mrs. Jordan: How dare you use that language! I think you better apologize right now.
Ted: I’m sorry, Mom, you made a fuckin’ asshole out of yourself in front of the woman I love.
Rose: I like being tragic, Ma. I learned it from you.
Ying Ying: All around this house I see the signs. My daughter looks but she does not see. This is a house that will break into pieces. It’s not too late. All my pains, my regrets, I will gather them together. My daughter will hear me calling, even though I’ve said no words. She will climb the stairs to find me. She will be scared because at first her eyes will see nothing. She will feel in her heart this place where she hides her fears. She will know I am waiting like a tiger in the trees, now ready to leap out and cut her spirit loose.
Waverly: Mom, why don’t you like Rich?
Lindo: Is Rich you afraid I not like? If I don’t like your Rich, I act polite, say nothing, let him have big cancer, let my daughter be a widow. I like Rich, of course I do. To allow him to marry such a daughter!
Waverly: You don’t know, you don’t know the power you have over me. One word from you, one look, and I’m four years old again, crying myself to sleep, because nothing I do can ever, ever please you.
Lindo: (pauses) Now…now, you make me happy.
Suyuan: (to June) That bad crab, only you tried to take it. Everybody else want best quality. You, you’re thinking different. Waverly took best quality crab, you took worst, because you have best quality heart. You have style no one can teach. Must be born this way.
Ying Ying: Do you know what you want? I mean, from him?
Lena: Respect. Tenderness.
Ying Ying: Then tell him now. And leave this lopsided house. Do not come back until he give you those things, with both hands open…Losing him does not matter. It is you who will be found–and cherished.
Rose: You’re not taking my house, you’re not taking my daughter, you’re not taking any part of me, because you don’t know who I am. I died sixty years ago. I ate opium and I died for my daughter’s sake. Now get out of my house!