Music is very influential to my writing, as are theater and film.

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.

Nothing will remain except space and time.

The character of God is an unchanging Northstar five which to find our way through a world of moral complexity.

If man doesn't learn to treat the oceans and the rain forest with respect, man will become extinct.

After going through a lot of procedures and spending a lot of money … the doctor said, ‘Look, based on what we’re seeing here, I just don’t think this is going to happen for you.'

Peace of Mind? Don't leave home (or go home) without it.

Everything you need to be great is already inside you. Stop waiting for someone or something to light your fire. You have the match.

Everything has to have some kind of a point for people to breathe easy. What's the point of life? I have no clue, but sometimes there are things that just attract us and pull us in a certain way.

I see myself as a roving mosquito, choosing it's target.

Experience only can teach men not to prefer what strikes them for the present moment, to what will have much greater weight with the them hereafter.