Jeremy Tiang > Quotes

“I am writing this on a computer that I can’t imagine living without. This is an alarming thought, the extent to which I have organised my life around a metal box full of wires (and, via the Internet, to many other metal boxes full of wires). Someone told me most of the Internet is stored in a warehouse somewhere in North Carolina. I don’t know enough about technology to gauge if this is true, but it made me realise how little I actually understand about the world I inhabit. The world of Dr Wong’s childhood was significantly smaller than mine, but he understood every square inch of it.”
― Jeremy Tiang, Durians Are Not the Only Fruit

“The article was written in scraps of time, between snatched moments of sleep. This can’t be normal, she thought, exhilarated, typing away in her slip at three in the morning. She’d been brought up to believe in regular work that took place in nice, clean offices, between fixed hours. Yet here she was, in a hotel room that could be anywhere, weaving a story into being and feeling like if she stopped for a second to breathe, the whole thing would fall apart. As long as she got the next sentence out, and the one after that, she’d be all right.”
― Jeremy Tiang, State of Emergency

“...the Party always makes you spend a bit of time getting to know people on the ground before you leave them behind, so if you do well enough to stand for election you can claim to have grassroots support.”
― Jeremy Tiang

“I'd had enough --- this country, it suffocates you, if you aren't careful. So I went away ---”
― Jeremy Tiang

“Many years later, Sophia will think of this night, and how close she was to tears. She will wonder how she could have allowed herself to arrive there, but also feel a twinge of loss for the girl still capable of losing control.”
― Jeremy Tiang, It Never Rains on National Day

“So many ways to be human, and most people were certain their way was best.”
― Jeremy Tiang, State of Emergency

“The good thing about age is the accumulation of injuries reaching the point where each individual hurt seems less significant.”
― Jeremy Tiang, State of Emergency

“She looked at me like I was stupid, the same look the girls in JC used to give me when I hadn’t heard of the latest boy band, or turned up at Zouk wearing unfashionable clothes.”
― Jeremy Tiang, It Never Rains on National Day