All dictators, the rich and famous, to the lowest security guard who holds a gun, easily forget that power is transitory.

When I wake up every morning, I thank God for the new day.

November is auspicious in so many parts of the country: the rice harvest is already in, the weather starts to cool, and the festive glow which precedes Christmas has began to brighten the landscape.

I have tried to be very rational, although I know love and hate are not rational and explained feelings.

Language as a communication tool is the primary element from which literature is created. Even in pre-literate societies, it exists as songs, riddles, or epics that are chanted.

Art, whatever form it takes, requires hard work, craftsmanship and creativity. As a writer, I know my grammar, cadence, the music of prose, and the art of the narrative.

I have always admired teachers because teaching, like the priesthood, medicine and writing, is a vocation. You don't become a teacher because you want wealth. It is the same with writing.

The Japanese bureaucracy is unique. It is also very powerful, although it is now the object of so much criticism. Many of Japan's brightest made it a pillar of strength and continuity.

We are shallow because our media are so horribly shallow. Every morning, I peruse the papers, and there is so little to read in them. It is the same with radio - all that noise, that artifice.

We are shallow because we are 'mayabang, ' ego driven, and do not have the humility to understand that we are only human, much too human to mistake knowledge for wisdom.

Poetry is emotion, passion, love, grief - everything that is human. It is not for zombies by zombies.

Let me hate you as passionately as I loved you.

The Golden Age was never the present Age.

Think you're escaping and run into yourself. Longest way round is the shortest way home.

Anyway, he's gone. Which, as you know, is how I like my men.

We long to connect; we fear that if we do, our freedom and individuality will disappear.

I don't care how much you love each other, if you have secrets, it'll never work. That's why she's your loved one, because it's the love of one. Togetherness, you are one.

I hate it when girls act stupid ’cause they think it’s cute. Intelligence is sexy.

Life is a garden. It is an opportunity. You can grow weeds, you can grow roses; it all depends on you.

I love romantic comedies. I know how terrible they are, but I love them! And I don't think that makes me less of a feminist.

Self worth cannot be verified by others. You are worthy because you say it is so. If you depend on others for your value it is other-worth.