Quite a while ago, I made a conscious choice to place my teaching first, so it was very ego-invested. That decision wasn't a good thing in some ways.

I want, I want, I want! We never grow out of it somehow. Unless we become Buddhists, maybe.

I'm always resisting [my muse]. I'm resisting her power.

After Fifty Shades of Grey, I think my writing is pretty tame, isn't it?

I did not write about that kind of insecurity and anxiety between myself and my brothers, because my father was the dominant male figure as I was growing up in that home.

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.

Working women went through a time when they believed that.