Becoming a mother has helped make me a tougher, stronger writer..

It's not just NYU. There are days when I feel like I'm stranded in some upscale mall in Pasadena. Don't even get me started on the insidious transfor….

All the fabulous and fearless writers gathered here, whether they are living in Manila, the US, or elsewhere in the ever-growing Philippine diaspora,….

Growing up in the Philippines, I loved all kinds of movies. We had a very healthy film industry there when I was a child. It's now gotten very limite….

Everything matters. Time is precious..

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

Writers and scholars have emerged in recent times (some familiar, some new) to continue to challenge the notion of a literature that encompasses the ….

I also identify as a Latin person, a person who has Latin blood..

I'm an underdog person, so I align myself with those who seem to be not considered valuable in polite society..

The punk scene in NY was so gritty and nihilistic & I was like ooh I want to do that.

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

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….

We didn't have television until I was about eight years old, so it was either the movies or radio. A lot of radio drama. That was our television, you….

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

I don't know what issues concerning identity have helped contemporary fiction evolve to what it is now. All I know is that the range of voices that a….

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

Adaptability is the simple secret of survival..

There were also horror shows on the radio. Very terrifying and thrilling to me as a kid. They had all these creepy sound effects. They would come on ….

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..

But I think there's a genuine joy, too, a sense that no matter what, even if my stomach's growling, I'm going to dance. That's what I want to leave p….

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