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" I've recently rediscovered Anthony Trollope. I used to read him back in college, and a friend turned me on to a whole new series of his work, 'The Palliser Series.' It's a series of seven or eight books. "

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" 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. "

Kevin Kwan

Child

Life

Mother

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

" I met a Shanghai photographer who finds these old streets and matches the French names to what they are today. I was able to find my grandfather's block, and just walking the same streets and finding his house was deeply moving. I finally felt connected to China. "

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

" 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. "

" 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 go to Shenzhen, China, and am taken to a vast luxury spa with a hundred leather recliners and a hundred accompanying plasma screen televisions bolted to the ceiling. "

Kevin Kwan

Ceiling

Leather

" I remembered that my grandfather had spent his teenage years in Shanghai and that he went back after he finished medical school to work there in a hospital. So I went back into my family archives and was able to find out his exact address; it was a street that was in the French Concession. "

" I wanted to explore what all this new-found wealth means for the different generations of Chinese who have to live together in this place that is transforming at warp speed into the richest country on the planet. "

" 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. "

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

" Such huge money has been made in China - it can be hundreds of millions in a year - and there's a need to validate it by showing what they can buy and how much of it. "

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

" I have a photographic memory. "

Kevin Kwan

Photographic

Memory

" 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. "

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

" 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. "

" I remember I had an aunt that lived in a house that had this beautiful ceramic wall that was entirely a painting of a peacock. "

" People are often disappointed when they meet me because I'm not this giant, flamboyant - you know, I don't wear sequined jackets. "

Kevin Kwan

Know

Because

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

" Even if they're not Asian or super rich... everyone has a nagging mother. Everyone has that obnoxious uncle, or that cousin who's a bit too snobby. "

" 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

" In order for me to write a scene, it's very important for me to see and experience everything with my own eyes, so yes, I was able to visit some remarkable houses and destinations while I was in China. "

" My grandmother used to get her shoes made in Paris in the '30s, and they would be shipped to her in Singapore. "

" I've always been drawn to the Edwardian period in England. To me, it seems like such a fascinating time, when the British Empire was at the height of its powers and the strict mores of the Victorian age were dissipating into the decadence of King Edward's reign. "

Kevin Kwan

King

Age

" I grew up with a posh English accent, and all my aunts sounded as if they came out of a Merchant Ivory movie. "

" They say truth is sometimes stranger than fiction, but there's such a thing as believability when you're writing a novel. "

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

" I love romantic comedies more than anything. "

Kevin Kwan

Anything

Love

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