I'm much more comfortable in pants and shirts, running around. There was a typical construction about womanhood when I was growing up that I rejected.
Shirley Geok-lin LimThe foot can march or it can dance, but it cannot stand still until end-stopped.
Shirley Geok-lin LimMy brothers were my peers, but they were not the preeminent male figures in my emotional life.
Shirley Geok-lin LimIt's as if I'm setting aside the husband and son, you know, the patriarchal world, for the world of the muse. This is the world of writing.
Shirley Geok-lin LimOf course, among the confused motives that spurred me toward being a writer was also the desire to look, to be above the trees and rooftops, beyond the Malaysian horizon that circumscribed my life.
Shirley Geok-lin LimI 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.
Shirley Geok-lin Lim