As indelible as cat piss...

I like this:

"Yet every now and then, some well-meaning friend will shove a nasty review under my nose, proclaiming loudly, 'Even if he is with the largest, most influential newspaper in the world...I don't think it's that dreadful.' When I hear things like that, I am reduced to the emotional level of a six-year-old outcast, taunted at school for bringing Chinese food in her lunch bag*. The words remain as indelible as cat piss on my bed pillow."

and this:

"I chose an unnamed goddess while writing my then untitled second book. I didn't think it was good manners to ask her anything as crass as good reviews and placement on bestseller lists...In the end, I asked only that I be able to write the best book I could, and that no matter what happened to it, I would have no regrets, no sorrows. I called my statue Lady Sorrowfree and titled the last chapter after her...I gave her offerings of airline mini-bottles of Jack Daniels."

- excerpts from "The Opposite of Fate" by Amy Tan

*Personally, I was never taunted in elementary school. Never. ::cough::