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" I spent the first 12 years of my life growing up in Singapore. Back then, in the early '80s, it was still a tropical island at the tip of the Malay Peninsula striving to shine on the world stage. "

Kevin Kwan

Shine

Growing Up

Life

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" My golden dream was to move to New York and live in the Village and become that cool rebel beatnik Jack Kerouac. "

" Certainly, living in the U.S., as I have for over two decades, you see how Asians are portrayed in the media... I didn't see myself represented, you know, when I used to look at ads on TV. "

" 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. "

" In Asia, it's customary to get together with your entire extended family on a regular basis, and it's all rife with politics. "

" I sort of wanted to reveal this other side of Asia: Southeast Asia, where the Chinese have been wealthy for generations and have different ways of relating to money. I wanted to sort of reveal this world to readers. "

" As a child, I could bike down the hill from my house and grab an ice-cold bottle of soda from the neighborhood grocer, which was nothing more than a corrugated metal shack run by two Indian men clad in sarongs. "

" I know an elderly society matron in Singapore who would rather walk in the scorching sun for blocks on end rather than have her chauffeur drive into the Central Business District at peak hour and pay the $1.50 surcharge. "

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

" I grew up in a household where there were really, really strong matriarchal characters. I think that's true of many Asian households. People tend to think of Asia as a misogynistic society or a society where men rule. At least in my experience, the women rule the household; the women rule the social scene. The men often become very useless. "

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

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

" The China Rich seem to be spending on a scale that's just beyond anything we've ever seen before. They are building and buying an insane amount of luxury residences around the world, commissioning huge flying palaces from Boeing, and paying ridiculous amounts for art. "

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

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

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" Canada has become such a staging area for Chinese money. "

" 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. "

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" At least when it comes to food, there's no snobbery in Singapore. "

" Hollywood is a whole other level of crazy. I've never met so many assistants who have assistants. It's a stratified society on its own. "

" I was born in Singapore, and I lived there until I was 12. I had a very fortunate upbringing. "

" There are old-money Asians that would never be caught dead with a Chanel handbag or sporting anything that has a label it. "

" 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. "

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

" 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. "

" If you're the water boiler king of China, you're selling a billion water boilers. "

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

" If I were to generalize a bit, I would say that the ultra rich in Asia live on a scale that far surpasses the wealthy in the U.S. or Europe. "

" 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. "

" The idea of Asian ascendancy has entered public culture. "