“Good for you! Walking away from Nick and his family’s fat-ass property portfolio. You have no one, no net worth, but you have integrity. That’s why I respect you.” — Peik Lin Goh
(On the airplane as Rachel is leaving) Nick Young: “I always imagined what me proposing to you would be like. You know what? I had it all planned out. I’d bring you to my favorite spot on the island. There’s a hidden trail that I used to go to as a child. Now there’s a cove there that opens up to this beautiful lake. When the sun hits the horizon, I’d get down on one knee. And the rest of the world would fall away. Because it would just be you… because it’s just you… I know this is a far throw from a hidden paradise. But wherever you are in the world, that’s where I belong. Rachel Chu, will you marry me? And make me the happiest man in this world?”
Passenger: “Yes! Yes! Yes! She will marry you!”
Rachel Chu: “Yes!”
“You know, it’s about time someone stood up to Auntie Eleanor. Well, you, not me. Oh, God! She can’t know I was ever here.” — Oliver T’sien
“Don’t chase after her and degrade yourself. I forbid it. If you go with her, you can’t come back!” — Shang Su Yi
Eleanor Young: “Ah Ma says if we don’t pass traditions down like this, they’ll disappear.”
Astrid Leong-Teo: “God forbid, we lose the ancient Chinese tradition of guilting your children.”
Eleanor Young: “You asked about my ring. The truth is Nick’s father had it made when he wanted to propose to me because Ah Ma wouldn’t give him the family ring. I wasn’t her first choice. Honestly, I wasn’t her second. I didn’t come from the right family, have the right connections. And Ah Ma thought I would not make an adequate wife to her son.”
Rachel Chu: “But she came around, obviously.”
Eleanor Young: “It took many years, and she had good reason to be concerned. Because I had no idea the work and the sacrifice it would take. There were many days when I wondered if I would ever measure up. But having been through it all, I know this much: You will never be enough.”
Rachel Chu: “She’s like trying to play a game of chicken with me. Where she’s like coming at me and thinking I’m going to swerve like a chicken.”
Peik Lin Goh: “But you can’t swerve.”
Rachel Chu: “I’m not gonna swerve. Not for her.”
Peik Lin Goh: “No. Chickens are bitches, dude!”
Rachel Chu: “And I’m not a chicken.”
Peik Lin Goh: “You’re not a chicken. You’re gonna roll up to that wedding; you’re gonna be like, ‘Bak-bak, bitch!’”
“Gosh, she’s so badass. You know, I bet if you told her you’d leave Nick for a million dollars, she will write that check. They do that around here.” — Peik Lin Goh
“Chinese sons think their moms fart Chanel No. 5.” — Peik Lin Goh
“I withdrew from university when we got married. I chose to help my husband run a business and to raise a family. For me, it was a privilege. But for you, you may think it’s old-fashioned. It’s nice you appreciate this house and us being here together wrapping dumplings. But all this doesn’t just happen. It’s because we know to put family first instead of chasing one’s passion.” — Eleanor Young
“You put the baby in bed. You tuck, tuck, tuck. Same on the other side. You give him a kiss goodnight.” — Nick Young
“I, on the other hand, was taught by Grand-Auntie Mabel. You put the Botox in the face, and then you pinch, pinch, pinch. Then, voila!” — Oliver T’sien
“No one loves free stuff more than rich people.” — Mandy Ling
“Well, exactly. You are so different from all of the women that I grew up with. And I love who I am around you. I don’t want that to change. And that’s selfish, I know. I’m sorry that you had to deal with that on your own. But I’m here now. Whatever happens, we’ll get through it together. Dead fish and all. All right?” — Nick Young
“Pursuing one’s passion. How American. Well, your mother’s very open-minded, not like here, where parents are obsessed with shaping the life of their children.” — Eleanor Young
Peik Lin Goh: “Are you sure you gave me the right address? The GPS says there’s, like, nothing here. Like, literally nothing.”
Rachel Chu: “I don’t know why we’re here. I mean, I put in the exact address.”
Peik Lin Goh: “You copied, and you pasted it?”
Rachel Chu: “Yeah.”
Peik Lin Goh: “Did you just copy and paste ‘jungle’ and just kind of threw it in there?”
Peik Lin Goh: “You’re going to Nick’s grandma’s house wearing this? Wearing that?”
Rachel Chu: “Yeah, I thought red was a lucky color, right?”
Wye Mun Goh: “Yeah. If you’re an envelope.”
“Rachel, these people aren’t just rich, okay? They’re crazy rich. Look. (picks up a handbag with a map of Asia print on it) There’s new money all over Asia. We got the Beijing billionaires, the Taiwan tycoons… but the Young family, they’re old-money rich. They had money when they left China in the 1800s. And they went all the way down here. Not there… here. They came to Singapore when there was nothing but jungle and pig farmers. There was a snake here, eating an apple. You know what I mean? And they built all of this. Now, they’re the landlords of the most expensive city in the world. Here you go. These people are so posh and snobby; they’re snoshy.” — Peik Lin Goh
Peik Lin’s mother: “We were inspired by the Hall of Mirrors in Versailles.”
Peik Lin Goh: “And Donald Trump’s bathroom.”
Rachel Chu: “So your family is, like, rich?”
Nick Young: “We’re comfortable.”
Rachel Chu: “That is exactly what a super-rich person would say.”
Nick Young: “So, what about us taking an adventure east?” Rachel Chu: (thinking for a minute) “You wanna get pork buns in the East Village. That’s what it is, isn’t it?” Nick Young: “I was actually thinking of further east.” Rachel Chu: “Like Queens?” Nick Young: “Like Singapore, for spring break? Colin’s wedding. We’ve been dating for over a year now, and I think it’s about time people met my beautiful girlfriend. Come on; I’m Colin’s best man. Don’t you wanna see where I grew up? Meet my family, my Ah Ma?”
Crazy Rich Asians Book Quotes
“Remember, every treasure comes with a price.”
“Doing nothing can sometimes be the most effective form of action. If you do nothing, you’ll be sending a clear message: that you’re stronger than they think you are. Not to mention a lot classier. Think about it.”
“Eleanor had a long-held theory about men. She truly believed that for most men, all that talk of “being in love” or “finding the right one” was absolute nonsense. Marriage was purely a matter of timing, and whenever a man was finally done sowing his wild oats and ready to settle down, whichever girl happened to be there at the time would be the right one.”
“Just because some people actually work for their money doesn’t mean they are beneath you.”
“I hate to point out the obvious, but here’s this tiny bird that’s been trying to get through a huge bulletproof glass wall. A totally impossible situation. You tell me it’s been here every day, pecking away persistently for ten minutes. Well, today the glass wall came down.”
“Perfection comes at a sacrifice,”
“God is in the details.”
“She wasn’t a rebel because to call her one would imply that she was breaking the rules.”
“That’s what I want for my kids. I want them to love their family, but to feel a deeper sense of pride in who they are as individuals, Nick, not in how much money they have, what their last name is, or how many generations they go back to whatever dynasty. I’m sorry, but I’ve had enough. I’ve had enough of being around all these crazy rich Asians, all these people whose lives revolve around making money, spending money, flaunting money, comparing money, hiding money, controlling others with money, and ruining their lives over money.”
“He would never give up trying. He would take an impossible situation and make everything possible.”
“I criticize you when you’re wearing something that looks so cheap. It’s a disgrace to me.”
“I’m not going to be wearing a single piece of jewelry tonight. I was born a Tung, and I have nothing to prove to anyone.”
“The only acceptable majors were medicine or law (unless you were truly dumb, in which case you settled for accounting).”
“There is nothing in the world that good food cannot fix.”
“To Eleanor, every single person occupied a specific space in the elaborately constructed social universe in her mind.”
“You’ll need ten new outfits per season, so you won’t be ashamed to be seen in public.”
“You can’t seriously think you can wear black shoes with khaki trousers,”
“These people are richer than God.”
“Why did everything have to be so fraught with significance?”
“The man glared at her as if she had insulted all of his ancestors.”
Crazy Rich Asians Quotes
“He should never have invited Rachel to come here without first giving her a crash course in how to deal with his family. ‘Rich, Entitled, Delusional Chinese Families 101.’ Could he really be part of this family?”
“She had witnessed firsthand the scars that blatant parental interference could inflict; why, even those assembled here were a reminder of that —Daisy’s relationship with her sons was tenuous at best, while Lorena’s eldest daughter no longer spoke to her after immigrating to Auckland with her Kiwi husband.”
″‘Aiyah, Nadine, there’s a difference between being grand and being discreet,’ Daisy commented, knowing full well that families like the Leongs and the Youngs guarded their privacy to the point of obsession.”
“I never want to be a part of a family like yours. I can’t marry into a clan that thinks it’s too good to have me. And I don’t want my children to ever be connected to such people. I want them to grow up in a loving, nurturing home, surrounded by grandparents and aunts and uncles and cousins who consider them equals.”
“Eleanor had a long-held theory about men. She truly believed that for most men, all that talk of ‘being in love’ or ‘finding the right one’ was absolute nonsense. Marriage was purely a matter of timing, and whenever a man was finally done sowing his wild oats and ready to settle down, whichever girl happened to be there at the time would be the right one.”
