Top 160 Kevin Kwan Quotes (2024 Update)
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51. “Salted dried plums, fervently sucked on by generations of Chinese like martini olives. Supposedly great for combating nausea.”

— Kevin Kwan

52. “This little girl needs to be raised properly – by a team of sensible Cantonese nannies, not interfering parents!”

— Kevin Kwan

53. “Forgiveness is a gift we give ourselves.”

— Kevin Kwan

54. “She had always found Asian girls with American accents to be quite ridiculous. They all sounded like they were faking it, trying to sound so ang mor.”

— Kevin Kwan

55. “Dress impeccably and they notice the woman.”

— Kevin Kwan

56. “Shanghai and Beijing society would come to accept her, especially if she carries a different handbag.”

— Kevin Kwan

57. “The man glared at her as if she had insulted all of his ancestors.”

— Kevin Kwan

58. “Why did everything have to be so fraught with significance?”

— Kevin Kwan

59. “There are the Chinese from Mainland China, who made their fortunes in the past decade like all the Russians, but then there are the Overseas Chinese. These are the ones who left China long before the Communists came in, in many cases hundreds of years ago, and spread throughout the rest of Asia, quietly amassing great fortunes over time.”

— Kevin Kwan

60. “Nicky, boys with proper manners do not ever ask questions like that. You do not ever ask people if they are rich or discuss matters concerning money.”

— Kevin Kwan

61. “I know the average outfit in your wardrobe costs more than a semester of tuition at Princeton, but it makes you look like a community college during summertime: NO CLASS.”

— Kevin Kwan

62. “I’m telling you, this so-called ‘prosperity’ is going to be the downfall of Asia. Each new generation becomes lazier than the next. They think they can make overnight fortunes just by flipping properties and getting hot tips in the stock market. Ha! Nothing lasts forever, and when this boom ends, these youngsters won’t know what hit them.”

— Kevin Kwan

63. “A fishing boat! All these rich kids who grew up with everything just want to live like they are poor. How is Nick anyway?”

— Kevin Kwan

64. “After this trip, New York is going to seem like a dump. Every place I go to in China seems to be more luxurious than the last.”

— Kevin Kwan

65. “These are what they call ‘real fakes.’ The factories in China are commissioned by all the luxury brands to manufacture the leather. Say the company places an order for ten thousand units, but they actually make twelve thousand units. Then they can sell the remaining two thousand off the books on the black market as ‘fakes,’ even though they are made with the exact same material as the real ones.”

— Kevin Kwan

66. “Carol glared at her for using the Lord’s name in vain.”

— Kevin Kwan

67. “Well I’ve never seen his name on any of the rich lists,” Bettina sniffed. “Bettina, I’m sure you know that there are people on this planet who are far too rich and powerful to ever appear on those lists!”

— Kevin Kwan

68. “I made my money the old-fashioned way. I was very nice to a wealthy relative right before he died. – MALCOLM FORBES.”

— Kevin Kwan

69. “The larger the diamonds, the older the wife, the more the mistress.”

— Kevin Kwan

70. “Coco Chanel said, “Dress impeccably and they notice the woman.”

— Kevin Kwan

71. “My parents have always been racist and elitist to the extreme, like so many in their crowd. Peel away the veneer of wealth and sophistication and you’ll find extremely provincial, narrow-minded people. The problem is that they all have too much money, and it’s come so easily to them that they think they’re bloody geniuses and so they are always right.”

— Kevin Kwan

72. “You’re an economist – don’t you know what HENRY stands for?” I racked my brains, but I still didn’t have a clue. Perrineum finally spat it out: “High Earners, Not Rich Yet.”

— Kevin Kwan

73. “Astrid’s parents bought their children houses in a way that other parents might buy theirs candy.”

— Kevin Kwan

74. “Astrid, it’s me. You don’t have to keep your emotions in check around me. You’ve thrown vases and goldfish bowls at me, remember?”

— Kevin Kwan

75. “I hope you told her that the most romantic thing that happened was watching Alistair projectile vomit out the car window after stuffing down too many In-N-Out burgers.”

— Kevin Kwan

76. “Why do all these ABCs talk to you as if they think you are their best friend?”

— Kevin Kwan

77. “Yes, but I’m also saving so much money by doing this! This whole development used to be farmland, and now that there are no more farms, I employ all the displaced locals to work on the estate, so it’s really been good for the economy. And think of all the carbon offset points I’m racking up by not having to fly all over the world every weekend trying out new spas,” Colette said earnestly.”

— Kevin Kwan

78. “Maybe if Mum behaves herself, she can meet our baby at age eighteen.”

— Kevin Kwan

79. “Oliver selama ini selalu berada dalam kelompok orang-orang superkaya, dan sangat sedikit yang memahami sebentuk neraka ketika harus hidup di dunia tempat setiap orang di sekitar kita luar biasa kaya tetapi kita tidak.”

— Kevin Kwan

80. “Trump, the fattest of the three Pekingese, waddled into the foyer.”

— Kevin Kwan

81. “Her family are the Medicis of Asia.”

— Kevin Kwan

82. “To stand out from the crowd, you need to begin traveling to new locales to demonstrate that you are someone of originality and interest.”

— Kevin Kwan

83. “I don’t understand. How can a credit card ever be rejected? It’s not like it’s a kidney!” Colette laughed.”

— Kevin Kwan

84. “After all this time, with all the medical advances we’ve made, the human body is still an unfathomable mystery to us. The heart most of all.”

— Kevin Kwan

85. “Paris is great because every street you walk down is like an unfolding novel.”

— Kevin Kwan

86. “How was this possible? And not just one or two friends who knew each other. Perfect strangers were hugging each other and introducing themselves. This was a miracle. My God, if this was what it was like to be a Christian, she wanted in right now!”

— Kevin Kwan

87. “It’s like all my patients these days – I never know whether the kid in my dental chair is homeless or owns Google,” Ray said gruffly.”

— Kevin Kwan

88. “He wanted to pass it on.”

— Kevin Kwan

89. “Well, yes there are certainly quite a few wannabe Saatchis around, but I’m dealing more with the ones trying to buy back the great antiquities from European and American collectors. Or, as they like to say, stuff stolen by the foreign devils”, Oliver said.”

— Kevin Kwan

90. “Please call your mother. She needs to speak to you urgently. I want you to put aside your feelings and just call her. It’s Chinese New Year. Please be a good son and call.”

— Kevin Kwan

91. “So a few people see me naked on a secluded beach on one of the remotest places on earth. Who cares? I’m proud of my body, I have nothing to hide.”

— Kevin Kwan

92. “As the last vapors of early-morning mist hovered over the still waters, the only sound to be heard was the discreet splish of the boatman’s single wooden oar as he rowed Rachel and Peik Lin through a secluded inlet of Hangzhou’s West Lake.”

— Kevin Kwan

93. “Can you imagine what our children will look like? Quarter Asians are the most beautiful species in the world.”

— Kevin Kwan

94. “He looks like the love child of Jay Leno and that Hermione girl from the Harry Potter movies, Corinna.”

— Kevin Kwan

95. “I always knew sending him to England would be a mistake. Why do we Chinese never learn? Every time we get mixed up with the West, everything falls apart.”

— Kevin Kwan

96. “From Indonesian and Malay mythology, pontianaks are said to be spirits of women who died while giving birth. A pontianak kills her victims by digging into their stomachs with her sharp dirty fingernails and devouring their organs. Yum.”

— Kevin Kwan

97. “Many of the wealthiest people here make an effort not to stand out, and most of the time, you would never know you were standing next to a billionaire.”

— Kevin Kwan

98. “Michael, don’t you know by now that my grandmother and Uncle Alfred are the largest private shareholders of Singapore Press Holdings? We’re not going to be in the papers. We’re never going to be in the papers.”

— Kevin Kwan

99. “It was like a scene straight out of a Merchant Ivory film!”

— Kevin Kwan

100. “I didn’t know what to say. I just stood there and noticed Gordon Ramsay over by the carrot truffle fries and all I could think was, “What is Gordon going to think if I say no?”

— Kevin Kwan