Hwee Hwee Tan > Quotes

“All the problems that came up... they all arose because of the foreign bodies within us ― things that happened in our childhood, some big, some small, but all significant; things that happened ten years ago, but still control our lives today; things from our yesterdays that will decide what we drink, dream, and doubt, till the day we die. But you can't see those things, because they're not on the outside.”
― Hwee Hwee Tan

“On the few occasions when we did visit my grandfather at the Evergreen Moral Home for the Aged Sick and Handicapped, I never wanted to go back. It's the smells that hit you first, the nauseatingly sweet smell of open sores and wet bandages, reeking of urine, saliva, sweat, pus -— the stench of incurable sickness blanketed by the pungent odour of strong medicine. I stood at the doorway, gagging, my lungs fighting to adapt to the atmosphere. This wasn't the smell of death — that is bearable — no, this was the noxious smell of decomposition, when flesh and soul and heart and bone separate, then rot, deteriorate until all is reduced to a putrid pile of rubbish ready to be wheeled out. The syrupy smell of decay.”
― Hwee Hwee Tan, Foreign Bodies

“So it is official. Life is meaningless. The intellectuals have debated it, and produced conclusions that your feeble brain cannot understand, but only accepts. If only your were smarter, then maybe you would grasp the logical reasons underlining the inevitable pointlessness of existence, but all you can do now is accept your fate.”
― Hwee Hwee Tan, Foreign Bodies

“Soccer, for the football fanatic, has nothing to do with the quality of the game. Their local team might only score goals from accidental deflections off the butt, but the fans will still pay over fifteen quid to watch those gaffs, simply because it's their team. In fact, technically, their love for their team has nothing to do with soccer, but everything to do with these huge, abstract values — fidelity, passion, love.”
― Hwee Hwee Tan, Foreign Bodies

“I'm getting really paranoid,' I said. 'I keep thinking, any moment, I'm going to get done for something that I didn't even know was illegal. I'm scared that if I fart too loudly I might get hanged for polluting the environment.”
― Hwee Hwee Tan, Foreign Bodies