“[Cancer] didn't make me more intense about not working more and just having fun more. It didn't do that either.” Quote by Shirley Geok-lin Lim
“The one difference I have noted is that it's made me more tender to my students and to young people particularly. It's made me mellower. I began to have a different perspective, because I may not be around much longer to be hassled by life's pressures.” PeopleMayMadeDifferentYoungDifferencesStudentsPerspectivePressureDifferent PerspectiveI May Not Be Author:Shirley Geok-lin Lim
“I look at my young students, and I no longer have the sense that, oh, I'm the authority and they have to meet a certain standard. It's like, oh, look at these young ones. They've got such a hard road in front of them. I don't envy them having life ahead of them.” LooksHardYoungCertainFrontsStudentsAuthorityStandardsEnvyYoung OnesYoung Students Author:Shirley Geok-lin Lim
“I feel compassionate, because I know [students] all have to go down this road of suffering and it's going to be tough.” KnowsFeelsSufferingStudentsToughCompassionate Author:Shirley Geok-lin Lim
“No matter how sheltered [my students] are, no matter how their parents try to do right by them, every single one of them, you know, every single one of us, that's what we all face. And so it's made me - that's the one change I've marked in myself - it's made me change in the way I relate to my students. I've become a different teacher in that way.” KnowsWayTryingMadeDifferentMatterFacesParentTeacherStudentsRelate 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 want, I want, I want! We never grow out of it somehow. Unless we become Buddhists, maybe.” WantGrowsBuddhist Author:Shirley Geok-lin Lim
“I was nine when I first knew I wanted to be a writer, in particular, a poet.” FirstsWantedParticularPoetNine Author:Shirley Geok-lin Lim
“In actual fact, I have been an academic - a college and university teacher and scholar - for much of the last 45 years, and only rarely a writer.” YearsHas BeensFactsLastsTeacherCollegeUniversityAcademicScholarColleges And Universities Author:Shirley Geok-lin Lim
“When I spoke at the 2012 Contemporary Women Writers' Conference in Taipei, I thought it offered an appropriate moment and site to announce my new manifesto10 and profession - to be a writer.” MomentsProfessionContemporaryAppropriateSpokesSiteConferences Author:Shirley Geok-lin Lim