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" I have pictures of my grandmother from the 1920s and '30s in avant-garde dresses that looked like they could have come from the House of Worth or Lucien Lelong. She would never say if they were couture, but I do recall her telling me, 'All my clothes and shoes came from Paris.' "

Kevin Kwan

Shoes

She

Clothes

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" I come from an old establishment family from Singapore. "

" I'm not revealing any deep, hidden secret that there are wealthy people in Asia. "

" I'm not sure if being Chinese really helped, but I do think that if a non-Asian had written a book called 'Crazy Rich Asians,' they might not have been looked upon so kindly. "

" It's human nature when you first make your big fortune to want to show off a bit. I don't begrudge that whatsoever. "

" I think snobbery is one of the oldest customs in the world, and the rich will always find ways to rank each other and make themselves feel more special than others. "

" I'm a writer. I'm naturally introverted, so being the public face of something, I don't think I do it well. "

" I came from a family of extremely old money, and so by the time I was born, there was really just a trickle of money left. "

" 'China rich' is the new 'crazy rich.' It's a new level of outrageousness. It comes from this world where overnight fortunes have been made, but the fortunes are so ginormous compared to anything we've ever seen in the history of the world. "

" There's so much emphasis on the economic might of China, of Southeast Asia, Asian 'Super Tigers' and things like that. But nobody was really looking from the perspective of a family story, of these individuals. "

" I really don't keep an outline; I don't organize in any way. I just write. "

" I've lived in New York City for over twenty years now, and every single day is like a new adventure. At this point, there are many places I'd love to visit, but I can't imagine living anywhere else on the planet. "

" Writers often say that characters begin to write themselves, and I never used to believe that. I always thought that was complete hogwash. "

" It would have been amazing to have been a student at Oxford during that golden moment in the 1910s, rubbing elbows with the likes of Aldous Huxley and T.E. Lawrence, before World War I shattered everything forever. "

" Old money in Southeast Asia is much more discrete and low key. It's about not wearing brand names. It's about being invisible, almost. The billionaire can be taking the bus with you. "

" My mother likes to say that I was conceived to shop - not just born to shop. My whole life as a child was following her and her sister and friends around on her shopping trips. "

" One of the dreams on my wish list is to spend more time in Thailand. "

" I grew up at a time in Singapore - the '70s and '80s - where it was still possible to go riding around the island barefoot. And I was one of these kids that was just climbing trees and running around the neighbourhood. "

" When my first novel, 'Crazy Rich Asians,' was published in 2013, many readers were astonished to learn that in Asia, there were women who dressed in couture from morning till night. "

" Living in the West, you see how there's only two versions of how Asian men are supposed to be. Either they're very nice, yuppie husbands with children in ads, or they're IT geeks. "

" My grandparents were far more English in their manners than they were Chinese. For example, we spoke English at home, had afternoon tea every day, and my grandfather, who attended university in Scotland, would smoke his pipe after dinner. "

" I have a photographic memory. "

Kevin Kwan

Photographic

Memory

" My father went to boarding school in Sydney when he was 14. "

Kevin Kwan

Sydney

Boarding

" The most important thing to keep in mind is the incredible diversity of talent that's out there - there are so many great actors from all over Asia, from Singapore and Hong Kong to the Philippines and Mainland China, not to mention many great Asian-American actors who are eager for fun and challenging roles. "

" It's not normal to go into a house and see a pond in the middle of the living room full of baby sharks. It's not normal to go to someone's garage and see a private plane. "

Kevin Kwan

Someone

Baby

" I would not call my family 'traditional Chinese.' We were more what I would term the Colonial Chinese. "

" Warner Bros. is just this amazing historic studio that does great movies. "

" Especially in the West, people want to understand Asia on a deeper level because it's become the engine of the world economy, like it or not. "

" My father came from old money. There was less of an expectation for the children to earn a living. "

" I wanted to introduce a contemporary Asia to a North American audience. "

" I'm naturally a shy, quiet person. "