The key to observing is to live ordinarily and cheaply, says cartoonist Lat

Lat is one of the keynote speakers at the Singapore Writers Festival 2023 on Nov 25. Photo: The Straits Times/Asia News Network

Cartoonist Lat’s first experience of the power of art was not in a museum, but in the daily newspapers – specifically the comic strips.

At age six, before he knew how to read, Lat would look at the pictures while his friends read the dialogue to him.