Top 410 Quotes & Sayings by Singaporean Authors - Page 3

If I want to be brave enough to stand up and make my opinions count, I will have to take the punches and roll with it.

The president needs to be a figure that unites Singaporeans. In order to do that, he needs to be someone who not only understands the viewpoints held by the establishment, but those held by the other more divergent sectors of society.

Especially in the West, people want to understand Asia on a deeper level because it's become the engine of the world economy, like it or not.

Warner Bros. is just this amazing historic studio that does great movies.

Nowadays, however strong an economy is, not all roads will lead only there. There will be other links between countries in Asia, with America, with Europe, and China will fit into this global network.

I really don't keep an outline; I don't organize in any way. I just write.

By raising bread-and-butter issues, we remind the Government of the things that it may forget or ignore.

This is politics. In politics, you only show the cake but not the ingredients. The time will come when I show you the cake and the ingredients.

You look at the Americans. They don't lack fervour in moral causes. They promote democracy, freedom of speech, women's rights, gay rights, sometimes even transgender rights. But you don't see them applying that universally across the world with all their allies.

In a democracy, you have the right to say what you want, but don't forget about equality: are you putting someone else down by saying it?

Our long-term dream is for Singapore to have a healthy democracy where there are two or three parties who could form a competent and honest Government.

Singaporeans do recognize the multitude of perspectives the Government has to take cognizance of, but it is important to recognize and not forget that citizens criticize and even organize because they can.

Selling and telling are two different things. In politics, we sell ideas.

Through the outreach that I have done, through platforms, I hope to unify Singaporeans because at the end of the day, Singapore is our home. We share a common destiny, and I think all of us work together for the benefit of our country.

Chinese companies - telecommunications and technology companies - are some of the best internationally. Taobao, WeChat, Huawei - not only are they large companies, but they're also very technologically advanced.

In every American election, crazy things are said. Positions are taken which the winners try very hard to forget afterwards.

I do not owe hundreds of millions of potential foreign workers from around the world an obligation. I owe Singaporeans a responsibility.

I wanted to introduce a contemporary Asia to a North American audience.

You have to have a sense of what it looks like, not from the point of view of the policymaker but from the point of view of those who are at the receiving end of your policies.

Canada has become such a staging area for Chinese money.

For me, any chance to serve Singapore even in its limited capacity... I would be glad to take it up and use it to serve Singaporeans.

I feel as much pressure as anyone does about their work, really. You just want to be productive; only difference is that the work is seen and judged by a few more people.

Shakespeare has been adapted by Akira Kurosawa. 'Dangerous Liaisons' has been adapted into a Chinese movie. 'Blood Simple', the Coen brothers movie, was adapted by Zhang Yimou.

If you make a defamatory allegation that the Prime Minister is guilty of criminal misappropriation of pension funds of Singaporeans, that's a very serious matter.

I'll welcome any competitor, no problem.

I have pictures of my grandmother from the 1920s and '30s in avant-garde dresses that looked like they could have come from the House of Worth or Lucien Lelong. She would never say if they were couture, but I do recall her telling me, 'All my clothes and shoes came from Paris.'

I plan to work my utmost for Singaporeans, whatever be their political affiliation. The presidency is above politics.

My books are comedies; I want to take my readers on a jet-setting romp, make them laugh, make them swoon at the beautiful settings, and maybe even make their mouths water at all the food.

We have to put the best team to offer a secure alternative to Singaporeans - let me stress, the best team, not the best individuals... The party must comprise members who work with others and not march to their own drumbeat.

Looks are just something on the surface. I think the electorate is more discerning than that. They want to know your stand on policies.

I'm not sponsored by anybody but myself... I'm not sponsored by the PAP.

I've recently rediscovered Anthony Trollope. I used to read him back in college, and a friend turned me on to a whole new series of his work, 'The Palliser Series.' It's a series of seven or eight books.

The tactics we were able to use in the 1960s, 1970s - let's have a campaign, mobilize everybody and, therefore, social pressure - stop littering, or stop spitting, or be courteous to one another: I am not sure that kind of approach will work anymore.

However, should any Singaporean consistently establish that he or she rejects Singapore or our Constitution or runs Singapore down with a political agenda overseas, neither I, nor the WP will stand for such conduct.

The growth of markets in the region also provides opportunities for home-grown entities - whether established brand names like DBS, Singtel and Keppel Corporation, or SMEs - to establish and grow their presence in the region.

What's wrong with Singapore is the idea that things need to be done in a certain way or not at all. Black or white. No room for alternative discussion.

Timing is very important in politics.

Overall, we think religion is a good thing. I mean, if we were godless society, we would have many other problems; the communists found that out.

Living in the West, you see how there's only two versions of how Asian men are supposed to be. Either they're very nice, yuppie husbands with children in ads, or they're IT geeks.

We want to show Singaporeans that if you vote in an opposition party, it doesn't mean your town is going to descend into chaos.

Even if they're not Asian or super rich... everyone has a nagging mother. Everyone has that obnoxious uncle, or that cousin who's a bit too snobby.

I go to Shenzhen, China, and am taken to a vast luxury spa with a hundred leather recliners and a hundred accompanying plasma screen televisions bolted to the ceiling.

As a result of the expectations created, every time a training fatality occurs, the public pressure on MINDEF and SAF commanders down the leadership chain takes on a very corrosive edge. This damages not just the SAF, but the institution of National Service too.

Having strangers bash you is something you never get used to.

If you interview world leaders, everybody will say they are for free trade. But what they mean by it and what they do when they say they are pro free trade, you have to watch and see.

There are old-money Asians that would never be caught dead with a Chanel handbag or sporting anything that has a label it.

When 'Ghost in the Shell' was first made, it was so prescient. It was sci-fi.

It used to be, on TV, you'd see only two types of Asians. You'd see the science geek who's using his mobile phone or something like that, or you'd see a very token Asian family - yuppie mother and father and two little Asian kids. It's the last barrier for Hollywood.

I spent the first 12 years of my life growing up in Singapore. Back then, in the early '80s, it was still a tropical island at the tip of the Malay Peninsula striving to shine on the world stage.

To be a unifying person, I think first you must have acceptance.

The Workers' Party will not be like the Japanese in World War II.

But at the end of the day, any president must try to unify Singapore... that must be in the heart of the man who wants to be the president.

I wanted to explore what all this new-found wealth means for the different generations of Chinese who have to live together in this place that is transforming at warp speed into the richest country on the planet.

My father went to boarding school in Sydney when he was 14.

I love Netflix and Amazon and watching movies on streamers as much as the next person.

My infrastructure must run brilliantly. My whole system must be different from what you can get anywhere else in Asia.

The role of the president is to take care of your money, and that's what I intend to do.

Referring to the PAP as uncaring so as to persuade some of our fellow Singaporeans to consider casting their vote for the WP will be self-defeating for us.

I was born in Singapore, and I lived there until I was 12. I had a very fortunate upbringing.

A lot of people have the expectation that politicians shouldn't just disappear into the woodwork even if they didn't win the election.