Do Not Say We Have Nothing

“People could walk away towards illusions; they might see something so entrancing they would neglect to turn around.” 

Marie worries that her mother will become so entranced with her father’s ghost that she will start to neglect Marie. Big Mother Knife voices a similar worry about Swirl, demonstrating the importance of being able to distinguish between truth and artifice.

“Without realizing it, had he […] found a way to survive by becoming entirely unseen?” 

Sparrow is trying to decide how he and his family survived continuous violence in China. Like many of the characters, he has tried to remain unseen. The quote foreshadows Sparrow’s demise—he dies thinking he is invisible.

“Without the musician, all life would be loneliness.” 

Big Mother Knife explains to Sparrow why musicians live through what people in other professions do not. Musicians and music are revered and a major theme of this book. Additionally, this quote is a premonition: When music is stolen from the people of China, its loss becomes apparent in their physical and psychological makeup. 

“Ai-Ming told me that solitude can reshape your life.”

Ai-Ming explains why she needs to start her life over in the United States instead of hiding out in Canada. This quote points to the importance of handling solitude in this book. Many of the characters, such as Wen, Ba Lute, and Sparrow, are forced to spend long periods of time alone, circumstances that ultimately change them forever.

“Sentences are equations too.” 

Ai-Ming asks Marie if she would rather be a writer or a mathematician when she grows up. The book values art and science equally, pointing to many crossovers between writing and arithmetic. 

“A mother never knows her children as well as she imagines.” 

Big Mother Knife says this to Swirl about both her own sons and Swirl’s daughter, Zhuli, but it characterizes almost all the relationships between mothers and their children in this book. It is especially true of Zhuli and Swirl: For a long time, Swirl believes Zhuli is alive and successful when she is actually dead. It’s ironic that Big Mother Knife would say this to Swirl, since Big Mother Knife is the reason Swirl doesn’t know her child is dead. 

“I think half my life might be spent running from one position to another until I trip and make a fatal mistake.” 

Jiang Kai says this to Zhuli and Sparrow when they are sitting below a pear tree outside the Conservatory. This quote predicts Jiang Kai’s future, as Jiang Kai spends his life running away from China, and then when he gets away, trying to run back. 

“What mattered was the here and now and not the life before, what mattered were the changeable things of today and tomorrow and not the ever, infinitely, unbearably unchanging yesterday.” 

Zhuli becomes frustrated with her mother’s inability to be present because of the past trauma she had suffered, giving voice to an idea that is hard to face for most of the characters. Both Jiang Kai and Sparrow spent their whole lives dwelling in the past instead of living in their present. This quote is also significant because it echoes the last words of the novel: Ling hoping that Ai-Ming can move on from the present instead of returning to the painful past. 

“How will I know when to stop looking?” 

While this question is ostensibly asked by Marie to her mother regarding their search for Ai-Ming, it is applicable more generally as it functions as one of the central questions of the book. For example, if Zhuli had stopped looking, she might have saved Wen and Swirl from the re-education camps. If Sparrow had stopped looking for people to help, he may not have died. However, if Swirl had stopped looking, she never would have been able to happily reunite with Wen. 

“(T)hey ask me, quietly, if I have been true to God. In my heart, I take God to mean the Party, the country and my family, and I say yes.” 

Jiang Kai says this to Sparrow about the priests from his hometown. This quote shows the zealotry the people of China felt for the Party. It was so fervent it could be called religious, and therefore caused a confusion between religion and government, leading to disaster. 

“Sometimes it is better not to say goodbye.” 

Jian says this to Sparrow and Kai when he is talking about how many of his prized possessions were melted down during the Great Leap Forward. Almost no one gets to say goodbye in the novel: Marie and her mother never get to say goodbye to Jiang Kai, Jiang Kai never gets to say goodbye to Sparrow, and no one gets to say goodbye to Zhuli. Seeing the positive in not saying goodbye holds a lot of power. 

“It is one thing to suffer, another thing to be forgotten.” 

Comrade Glass Eye said this to Sparrow as he was reminiscing about his time in the re-education camp with Wen. Many of the characters seem willing to suffer, but not to be unloved. Ba Lute, Sparrow, and Jiang Kai are willing study, fight, practice, and work hard, but they do not want to be left behind. 

“How did a composer live his life unheard?” 

Marie thought this to herself as she was going through her dead father’s things 16 years after his death. A composer cannot live unheard and that is why Zhuli committed suicide, Sparrow turned into a sallow sad sack, and why Jiang Kai was willing to give up everything but life to keep playing.

“[T]he internet was a series of doors: all I had to do was create the door she could open.” 

Marie tries to find a way to connect with Ai-Ming in cyberspace. The idea that one must create one’s own doors or one’s own opportunities is one that rings true throughout the novel. For example, Big Mother Knife, Swirl, and Sparrow only survive because of the innovative career they create in a time of great struggle. Wen also had to create his own door to escape the re-education camp.

“I believe there is no prosperity but freedom.” 

Ling says this to Sparrow when they are discussing the Party’s decision to send them to work in factories instead of allowing them to use their intellect. This book constantly debates the definition of freedom. Sparrow must have liked this idea of freedom because he ended up marrying Ling shortly after she said this.

“If they see that you are devoted to it, they will take it from you.” 

Sparrow has this thought about the woman sitting next to him at a concert performed by the Central Philharmonic. Throughout the novel, this sentiment rings true. Jiang Kai, Zhuli, and Sparrow loved music with a passion and had it ripped from them. Ba Lute loved the Party and had it ripped from him. Swirl loved her children and had them ripped from her. 

“[C]lass status shouldn’t pass down across generations.” 

Jiang Kai relates this belief to Sparrow when they reunite after years of being apart. Zhuli was treated poorly because of her parents’ ostensible counterrevolutionary work, whereas for a long time Sparrow and his brothers had a pass because of Ba Lute’s enthusiastic involvement in the Party. This cycle treated humans as cogs in a wheel rather than individuals and caused a lot of friction during the Revolution. 

“[…] there are ways to begin again. We could leave.”

Jiang Kai is trying to convince Sparrow to apply to go abroad. For many of the characters in the novel, the only path to change is to leave. For example, Ai-Ming and Wen both had to leave China in order to regain their footing. Sparrow also eventually believes that he must move in order to achieve desired change.

“How was it possible for a person to write her own future?” 

Ai-Ming has this thought after struggling with both her studies and the government’s policies. One of the main struggles of this novel is the struggle to have control over one’s own narrative, something many of the residents of China did not have at this time. However, in a moment of hope, Swirl writes her future into The Book of Records. 

“[A]nyone would try to get a second mouthful, a third, a whole bowl for themselves.”

Ai-Ming wonders whether economic freedom could ever be viable for all of humanity. Selfishness is a huge concern of Chinese culture that was co-opted by the Party: Anything and everything not deemed as working toward the community good was labeled selfish and punished. Zhuli and Sparrow worry that they are being selfish constantly, and unfortunately, even after her death, Zhuli is accused of the very selfishness she tried to avoid. 

“There is no way across the river but to feel for the stones.” 

Big Mother Knife says this in a letter to Sparrow while he, Ling, and Ai-Ming are living in Beijing. This advice from Big Mother is important because Sparrow has to go through a lot of suffering, and Big Mother Knife knows suffering is easier to deal with if there is a goal at the end. 

“Without memory, they’re free.” 

Ling says this to Sparrow about the student protestors at Tiananmen Square. This quote is important because it provides another definition of freedom, something heavily debated throughout the book. The quote’s significance also lies in its irony: Ling is positing that having no memory is a path to freedom, while Sparrow’s memory is his greatest treasure. 

“He had not been afraid, then, that his hands, his eyes, his mind, had given themselves over to something else.” 

Sparrow has this thought about his past when he is running through gunfire, trying to save himself and others. The inability to lose control has stifled the potential for happiness of Sparrow and Jiang Kai.