Epigram Books

“Coincidence sometimes happens as in a fairy tale. Wong was in an emotional state of mind. Still smoking opium, he thought about Kwang’s long-dead father, who had arrived in Singapore from Amoy on the junk Nam Hong. The opium den now felt bare and lonely without all the old vibrations. It was also dark and damp and the small kerosene lamp was running low on fuel. Wong added more kerosene and mumbled to himself, “Tonight I am going to smoke my way to heaven!”
― Ming Cher, Spider boys

“There are things that cut through swathes of memory, there are things you take with you that are non-essential, that drag you down, but you can't offload them because there is only one way to throw them overboard and that is for you to walk the plank.”
― Amanda Lee Koe, Ministry of Moral Panic

“My mind skipped to a sunlit Saturday morning a few months ago when Noah was supposed to be revising for his exams. I caught him looking out the window instead, distracted by a roving butterfly. “Noah, you’re supposed to be studying!” I scolded.

He replied languidly, “I am! I’m studying what’s out there.”
― Monica Lim, The Good, the Bad and the PSLE: Trials of an Almost Kiasu Mother

“Small people need to talk more loudly to be heard.
Well I'm small aren't I, I'm not even 1.6 metres tall, but you don't see me raising my voice.
Maybe you're okay with not being heard.
I just want to be heard by the right people. The right person.”
― Amanda Lee Koe, Ministry of Moral Panic