“I also wanted to be like my brothers, physically, and yet not physically. So I would constantly - and I think nowadays it's taken for granted that this is what girlfriends do - I would constantly wear their shorts, put on their shirts. That did not seem odd because we were desperately poor for quite a while. It wasn't as if pretty little girlie things were available to me.” IfsThinkingLittlesSeemsWantedPoorTakenBrotherAvailableGrantedOddShirtsGirlfriendMy BrotherShortsTaken For Granted Author:Shirley Geok-lin Lim
“Is there a term that one might use rather than say that one is homosexual? Is there a different physical gender and symbolic dimension? I'm thinking of Adrienne Rich's notion of the lesbian spectrum. It's not as if sexual identity is binary: one must be either homo or hetero.” IfsThinkingDifferentUseMightTermRichIdentityNotionGenderDimensionsHomosexualSpectrumSymbolicBinaryMight Use Author:Shirley Geok-lin Lim
“I think that's what, to me, also talks about the silences in my work - as a woman, a woman writer, when you say, "no" or you have to say, "no" so often to the writing occasion, those occasions don't really come back.” ThinkingWritingSilenceOccasions Author:Shirley Geok-lin Lim
“I really felt neurotic - it was a neurotic reason - but I had to teach very, very well. That sucked up a lot of oxygen from my time and my creative thinking.” ThinkingWellsReasonFeltTeachCreativeMy TimeOxygenNeuroticCreative Thinking Author:Shirley Geok-lin Lim
“I only submit the poems I think are the strongest.” ThinkingStrongestSubmit Author:Shirley Geok-lin Lim
“After Fifty Shades of Grey, I think my writing is pretty tame, isn't it?” ThinkingWritingFiftyShadeGreyFifty ShadesShades Of Grey Author:Shirley Geok-lin Lim
“I can't imagine otherwise - I guess Virginia Woolf could write wonderful novels where the women never have sex, and her novels work. But for me, I don't think I could write a plot without sex happening somewhere.” ThinkingWritingI CanSexNovelImagineWonderfulHappeningsPlotVirginiaWoolf Author:Shirley Geok-lin Lim
“In a way, this kind of insight or recognition often permeates the way I think of character, how I plot action, and the way in which I use imagery, seeing binaries as false.” ThinkingWayKindCharacterUseActionSeeingInsightRecognitionPlotImagery Author:Shirley Geok-lin Lim
“In publishing books and winning awards, it's like you've enjoyed this meal, you know, two months ago. How long can you be nourished by thinking about it? You've already ingested it, and you've excreted it, and that was two months ago. You had this fabulous meal. It's not going to keep you satiated today. You have to go out and get your next meal. For me, that's writing. I have to go out and hunt my next meal.” ThinkingKnowsWritingLongTwoBookTodayNextWinningLike YouMonthsEnjoyedMealsAwardsPublishingFabulousHuntsTwo MonthsPublishing BooksWinning Awards Author:Shirley Geok-lin Lim
“Saul Bellow has that character in Henderson the Rain King say: "I want, I want, I want!"9 I remember reading this passage years ago and thinking, yes, that's the human.” ThinkingWantYearsHumansCharacterRememberReadingKingsRainYears AgoPassages Author:Shirley Geok-lin Lim
“I do not think a similar goal, to attain fame, drove me when I was a child and young woman.” ThinkingChildrenYoungGoalFameYoung Women Author:Shirley Geok-lin Lim
“Emerging into writership, I have plans to discover my other themes, of nation and country, love and conflict, the body and transcendence, mutilation and wholeness, starvation and wicked plenty, and more. That is, I am already thinking ahead to more writing.” ThinkingWritingCountryBodyNationsPlansConflictPlentyThemeWickedWholenessTranscendenceEmergingStarvationMutilationCountry LoveThinking Ahead Author:Shirley Geok-lin Lim
