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" The characters that populate my books are global nomads in their own right, keeping multiple homes around the world and constantly jet-setting to new places. "
Kevin Kwan
Books
Own
Places
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" The idea of Asian ascendancy has entered public culture. "
Kevin Kwan
Public
Ascendancy
Asian
" 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. "
Kevin Kwan
Family
Work
School
" I'm not revealing any deep, hidden secret that there are wealthy people in Asia. "
Kevin Kwan
People
Secret
Hidden
" My golden dream was to move to New York and live in the Village and become that cool rebel beatnik Jack Kerouac. "
Kevin Kwan
Live
Cool
Dream
" 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. "
Kevin Kwan
Dinner
Tea
Smoke
" I'm naturally a shy, quiet person. "
Kevin Kwan
Quiet
Shy
Naturally
" I do believe that peoples' natures can be changed, and they have to be changed if we want to live in this modern world and be a part of it. "
Kevin Kwan
Modern
World
Want
" When cultural movements happen, it's so beyond your control. "
Kevin Kwan
Control
Happen
Your
" If you're the water boiler king of China, you're selling a billion water boilers. "
Kevin Kwan
Water
China
King
" I was born in Singapore, and I lived there until I was 12. I had a very fortunate upbringing. "
Kevin Kwan
Singapore
Born
Had
" Canada has become such a staging area for Chinese money. "
Kevin Kwan
Money
Canada
Become
" 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
Go
Leather
" Growing up in Singapore, I wasn't allowed to visit China. So when I was finally able to go there after the country began opening up to tourism in the 1990s, I found it to be utterly astounding. "
Kevin Kwan
Growing Up
Opening
Growing
" 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. "
Kevin Kwan
World
People
Economy
" People have always been fascinated by the foibles of the wealthy and privileged. "
Kevin Kwan
Wealthy
Always
Been
" 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. "
Kevin Kwan
Story
Perspective
Looking
" One of the dreams on my wish list is to spend more time in Thailand. "
Kevin Kwan
Dreams
Time
Thailand
" I love Netflix and Amazon and watching movies on streamers as much as the next person. "
Kevin Kwan
Person
Netflix
Love
" 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. "
Kevin Kwan
World
Reveal
Side
" 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. "
Kevin Kwan
Today
Finding
House
" 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
" As a child, I didn't even realize I was Chinese. I was Singaporean, but my identity was wrapped up in the culture I was experiencing every day. "
Kevin Kwan
Day
Identity
Child
" It used to be, on TV, you'd see only two types of Asians. You'd see the science geek who's using his mobile phone or something like that, or you'd see a very token Asian family - yuppie mother and father and two little Asian kids. It's the last barrier for Hollywood. "
Kevin Kwan
Family
Father
Phone
" 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. "
Kevin Kwan
War
Amazing
Moment
" My grandmother used to get her shoes made in Paris in the '30s, and they would be shipped to her in Singapore. "
Kevin Kwan
Singapore
Grandmother
Shoes
" Every family is a crazy family. "
Kevin Kwan
Family
Crazy
Every
" 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. "
Kevin Kwan
Asia
Live
Rich
" Writers often say that characters begin to write themselves, and I never used to believe that. I always thought that was complete hogwash. "
Kevin Kwan
Always
Never
Say
" Couture occupies the uppermost stratosphere of fashion. It is the holy of holies, as only about 2,000 women globally are fortunate enough to wear these precious garments tailored to their exact measurements, making it perhaps the most exclusive club in the world. "
Kevin Kwan
Fashion
Precious
World
" 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. "
Kevin Kwan
Diversity
Talent
Great