Quotes:

[On Applied Maths] I think by now your Economics is getting quite good and you can write sensibly about a real world problem.

[Female Student 1 to 2: Don't need to be so nice to guys. Must play hard to get. [Female Student 2: What the hell.] [Male student: So many guys have tried to get you?] If you want to play hard to get, people must want to get you. [Female Student 1: That's a good point, Gabriel. I shall meditate on that.]

[Student on claiming a higher level good outweighs lower level evil: How can he justify it?] I don't know how he can. If you're going to be so stubborn - just joking.

[On JS Mill] It's better to be Plato dissatisfied than a pig satisfied. There're lots of pigs... Student pleasures. Drinking and cavorting and whoo! That's fun, but that's nothing compared to sitting down for an evening with Plato. Just you wait.

[O why only 5% of the literature in Philosophy of Religion is on the non-Abrahamic conception of gods] In Buddhism there's nobody to hold accountable. [Me: You can have, like, Philosophy of Suffering] Yeah, but then it'd be like self-help.

That is not clear, neither coherent (neither, nor)

A lot of the engineers and science students don't do well in this module, even though they know all the maths and equations and they have done problems on this before. That's why they don't do well in this module, because they can't use clear complete coherent sentences to explain what's happening.

Rule number 1. In this class you do not start any sentence with 'I'm not sure'. That just wasted 30 seconds of my time.

Ooh. There're topless little boys. Shall I go be Michael Jackson?

[Female student: Stop caressing your hair]... You want me to flip [it]? *flip* [Female student: Oh no.]

[On having a fulfilling university experience] He spent a lot of USP's money, so USP rewarded him by giving him even more money.

Gabriel, do you have any inhibitions at all?

Are you guys doing foo'coo? (Foucault)

[On US racial classification] If you're from Europe, the Middle East or North Africa you're white I think that's kinda interesting. A lot of Arabs who get racially profiled - 'Hey, I'm white'.

[On Mr Potatohead illustrating identity] My brother said: 'You're an idiot for putting that there'

[On Invisible City] I wouldn't watch it for information or content. Those are not the strengths of the film. [Student *sotto voce*: So what're the strengths of the film?]

[Female student: What's that furry thing around your arm?] It's called a scrunchie. Don't you know? [Female student: Oh yeah.] It's very useful. It can be used to shoot people *shoots her*

Except for Pulau Ubin. They keep a sort of 'Third World out island' for you guys to visit.

[On the ethnographer in Invisible City] I don't like that old man. I don't know him. I'm bothered by him.

[On Cambodia] I want to give you 2 afternoons and 2 nights to do your own thing. I do this with incredible hesitation... I was gonna be very draconian and have a curfew and lock you all in.

Second semester is beautiful. If you take this class next semester it doesn't rain but it's 45 degrees.

I always bully him. [Me: You got boyfriend to bully already] I abuse my boyfriend. That's different.

'The softest thing in the universe can overcome the hardest thing in the universe'. That's one of those Chinese things that sounds good but doesn't mean anything. [Student: That's because you don't understand {it}] So what does it mean? [Student: You have to ask Lao Tzu].

Guys like girls who have big - eyes. [Me: I thought you were going to say 'big breasts'.]

[On internal flow] This is very important to engineers... Fluid flowing through a pipe... We'll go to the fun stuff, which is external flow.

Some of you are lucky. There will be some JC students who will come and listen to your talks... The USP office has some outreach efforts... I volunteered on your behalf.

Do you know this girl called ***?... She's always talking about her neh and her vagina.

Do you do your work?... You never seem to do your work. In class you don't take down notes, you take down the professor's quotes. It annoys me.

What did I come out to do? [Me: Annoy people?] That comes naturally... Oh, fill water!

If you're from RJ and you're here it means you fucked up your A levels.

The strategy in Singapore, when you're writing about political parties, the government, is to praise them at the start.

[On the Catherine Lim affair] This again is a PAP strategy. You make your argument using quantifiable data, then you attack the credibility of your opponent.

Lorena Bobbitt. I can't believe you don't remember this. It was so painful.

Come and speak, but speak the right things. This is consultation in Singapore.

[On the Father castrating the Stand-in in public] The most phallic expression - 'big stick'.

[On a picture of Catherine Lim] This is the dangerous woman who's going to tear the social fabric of Singapore.

[On Luce Irigaray's Mimesis as a 3rd way apart from acceptance and competition to contest patriarchy] Imagine living through these 6 months... The violence and hysteria bringing out the hypocrisy of the system. Mimesis... She didn't want to take the Chee Soon Juan path... Singaporeans saw the cracks in the system, the castration complex. The rift in the PAP... Go with the system. Play the part and show how contradictory, how foolish it is.

3 years ago he lost 3 seats. What's the kind of message he's getting from them? Singaporeans see him as a weak girl... It was very hard to be *** at the time.

[On insecurity and if 1994 had happened today as opposed to 1997 or 2003] Today, they're showing you pictures. Singapore is prosperous. Who cares what Catherine lim says?

If you allow an articulate citizen to debate some of our ministers, I think some of them will lose... As longas it's on equal terms. Just the ideas [and not deference to Asian Authority].

I think it's much easier to put people behind bars if they come with bombs and guns... If they come with irony, humour, satire, short stories with hidden messages - what are you going to do? Very dangerous ah.

It was used copiously until 1997. Asian Economic Crisis. When Asian Values meant nepotism, corruption. Lee Kuan Yew never talked about Asian Values again.

Using a woman to dismiss another woman. That's a very popular... tactic against feminism in general.

I find it very bazaar. (bizarre)

Here's the Founding Father. Think of the Freudian superstructure... His story is seen as the Singapore Story... That castration complex... It's the whole culture. If you ask people from AWARE how they got started, they will say: 'Lee Kuan Yew'. He told Graduate Women to organise. Founding Father: Lee Kuan Yew.

Now Lee Kuan Yew is employed in a different way. He's a gay icon... You get him to say things that the government has to say but cannot... You can't imagine any of the cabinet ministers saying that... People don't like it, but it's Lee Kuan Yew, so it's kinda okay.

[Student: So what happens when he goes?] That's an interesting question. When he goes he will rise from the grace. 'Touching promise' - Catherine Lim... You know what performance theatre is suffering from today? The ghost of the Father. Whatever they do... He's in the room.

'The PAP government'... Some people say 'the PAP state' but that's a little bit dangerous. The state is composed of the Executive, the Legislature and the - Judiciary. Are you saying that the judiciary is not independent? That's the one thing that'll get you sued in this country.

[On avoiding violence] That's why they say they don't want to be the government... You become like Chee Soon Juan.

What bothers me... If the PAP is in power too long, sometimes when you challenge and take over, you become exactly the same... One day when the PAP falls, the Opposition is going to come in and become 10 times more authoritarian than the PAP, because it's a hard-won prize.

[On Royston Tan being state-funded] Capitalism has been so successful that subversion has become capital... Everyone wants a piece of Royston Tan... Today Royston Tan is a hot piece of property.