There is real beauty in my eyes when I lose my mind.

I'm preparing for a multimedia theater piece, Airport Music, that's coming up in New York City.

My identity is linked to my grandmother, who's pure Filipino, as pure as you can probably get. And that shaped my imagination. So that's how I identify.

I don't believe in sampling some Tibetan music just to make it sound groovy, but you do your homework, you understand what you're doing with it.

Don't say Fili, sister. Say Pili. In Tagalog, pili means to choose. Pino means fine. Pilipino equals 'fine choice.

Adaptability is the simple secret of survival.

Everything matters. Time is precious.

Hybridity keeps me from being rigid about most things. It has taught me to appreciate the contradictions in the world and in my life. I scavenge from the best.

Life is not simple, and people can't be boxed into being either heroes or villains.

I love writing dialogue, and I think a lot of my writing is visual and very cinematic.

[On The Philippines:] ... eighty dialects and languages are spoken; we are a fragmented nation of loyal believers, divided by blood feuds and controlled by the Church.

At first we hope too much later on not enough.

The beauty of stature is the only beauty of men.

My achievements in the field of chess are the result of immense hard work in studying theory.

Oh, what lies there are in kisses.

When it gets difficult is often right before you succeed.

A lot of times when I've been offered film series and stuff, if they shoot in Los Angeles, I lose interest.

If the law imposed the death penalty for parking tickets, we'd not only have fewer parking tickets, we'd also have much less driving.

Every minute, every second, the pattern of genes being expressed in your brain changes, often in direct or indirect response to events outside the body. Genes are the mechanisms of experience.

The landscape with its violent, pure colours dazzled and blinded me. I was always uncertain.

Be patient and tough; someday this pain will be useful to you.