I feel compassionate, because I know [students] all have to go down this road of suffering and it's going to be tough.

Just because suddenly you have a sabbatical doesn't mean that the writing occasion comes to you.

I'm surrounded by men, and the muse is complaining that I have neglected her.

Of 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.

Some Asian American male scholars have claimed this muse to be Guong Goong, God of Literature, and, simultaneously, although not coincidentally or triflingly, God of War, but I did not have such a gendered muse in mind then.

With so many brothers, I could always find a pair of shorts to borrow and run around in.

Even today, I'm much more comfortable dressed in a male kind of way.