Chinatown Quotations

As a child growing up in San Francisco in the 1950s, I sometimes met insults when I ventured outside of Chinatown or my neighborhood. I have even been spat on and threatened with a knife. I could have let my anger fester until it became hate. However, I realized they were isolated incidents, and I simply got on with my life.

Chinatown is tremendously interesting... It's a part of the city that hasn't really been explored in crime literature or in any general literature. It's as though Chinatown didn't exist. People write about New York without mentioning Chinatown at all.

I was born in San Francisco's Chinatown in 1948 but grew up in a black neighborhood. During elementary and middle school, I commuted to a bilingual school in Chinatown. So I did not confront white American culture until high school.

Having spent many years working in New York's Chinatown restaurants early in my career, I have the utmost respect for the history and connection New Yorkers have with Chinese cuisine.

Chinatown was probably the most economically devastated area as a result of Sept. 11, ... The concept of making an Empire Zone was to attract jobs.

Chinatown is basically burned down, there are only a couple of shops left standing. Right up to this morning looting is still continuing.

I found it too upsetting to walk through Chinatown afterwards in case there was any recognition. It is not often you have a West End star stolen.

If all the Chinese men who claimed to be US-born actually were, it meant every woman in Chinatown would have to have had 800 sons. That gives you an idea what was going on.

The problem of what to do with Chinatown is no more.

I guess 'The Player' was a pretty good L.A. movie. And 'Chinatown.' Was there ever a better L.A. movie about a certain period in L.A.? That was terrific.

We have different versions of what revitalizing Chinatown means.

They really shocked Chinatown and all the officials when they revealed themselves last year.

It's a whole new economic model . . . It's corporate, it's based on fear. They try to do what they think is safe. I would say half the movies I've made I could not make now with a major studio. They would not let me . . . I watched Chinatown the other day. What studio do you think would make that movie now with that plot and that ending?

The author presents a different way of looking at movies through the lens of color. She explains through examples from many different movies the power of reds, the corruption of some greens, and the melancholy of blues. Movies cited include The Wizard of Oz, The English Patient, Chinatown and many more.

It that hadn't happened, Chinatown would have died.

It's really a blend of cultural artistry and tradition. What we're really trying to recreate is New York's Chinatown in a confined space.

Chinese workers working in Chinatown are quite vulnerable. For them to be willing to come file a lawsuit in their names shows they are not only outraged, they are ready to stand up.

I came back to San Francisco and spent more time in the neighborhoods like Chinatown and the Mission that I hadn't been in much before. I tried to get a feel for all parts of the city, so when I wrote the book, the neighborhoods would be like characters. There are scenes where all Charlie does is walk through neighborhoods, and it's like an Impressionist painting.

Either you bring the water to L.A. or you bring L.A. to the water.

I'm not in business to be loved, but I am in business.