By Yong Shu Hoong

Economic booms and recessions come and go. En-bloc fever, during which the residents of apartment blocks and condos vote to put their homes up for lucrative collective sale, may gather steam or wane depending on market conditions, but it's a phenomenon that never seems to go away for good.

  1. What are you reading right now?
Faith Ng's play 'Normal' and a collection of political plays by Thai playwrights.

2. If you were a famous literary character in a novel, play, or poem, who would you be, and why?
I'm not sure if there are any specific characters I want to be, but there are times when I watch a play, and the characters and the worlds are so vividly and wonderfully drawn out, that I wish I could continue to live in them, even after the curtain falls. Examples are Tony Kushner's 'Angels in America', Tennessee Williams' 'The Glass Menagerie', and some of the colourful worlds that Haresh Sharma has created.

3. What is the greatest misconception about you?
When students think I'm famous and ask for my autograph. But it's very sweet.

4. Name one living author and one dead author you identify with most, and tell us why.
When I first read Maxine Hong Kingston as a university student studying in the US, it was pretty mind-blowing for me to see elements of Asian culture reflected in this American novel. It was strangely familiar yet refreshing to see the elements of my world reflected through her experience. (I can't think of a dead author I identify with for now.)

5. Do you believe in writer's block? If so, how do you overcome it?
Yes, I think it's driven by fear. The fear of failing, of not being good enough. I usually overcome it by giving myself permission to write a crappy first draft and then improving it from there.

6. What qualities do you admire most in a writer?
Empathy, vulnerability, humility.

7. What is one trait you deplore most in writing or writers?
Self-indulgence.

8. Can you recite your favourite line from a literary work or a piece of advice from a writer?
"Only connect." From E.M. Forster. It's short and easy to remember, and it's useful to come back to whenever I forget why I'm doing what I do. 

9. Complete this sentence: Few people know this, but…
I am painfully shy.

10. At the movies, if you have to pick a comedy, a tragedy, or an action thriller to watch, which will you go for, and why?
Rom-com! Cos I can't deal with stress in a movie.

11. What is your favourite word, and what is your least favourite one?
"Serendipity" and "nice".

12. Write a short-short story in three lines that include the following three words: "sister", "boom" and "knot".
This knot is something I cannot untie. We are linked, my sister and I. Until the world goes boom and falls apart.

  13. What object is indispensable to you when you write?
My laptop. And it's always a bonus if my cat is there too.

14. What is the best time of the day for writing?
Late at night (or early in the evening), when the kids are in bed.

15. If you had a last supper, which three literary figures, real or fictional, would you invite to the soiree, and why?
Elizabeth Bennett, Emily of Emerald Hill, Mdm White Snake. Because they're all dragon ladies, in one form or another, and the conversation would surely be scintillating, to say the least.

16. What personal, social or global concerns are on your mind as you venture into your next theatre and/or writing project?
The vulnerability of the young, and polarisation of communities.

17. What would you write on your own tombstone?
"I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith."

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