Bea

“At hearing the news, he unsuccessfully tried to stop himself from being happy. He wondered how it happened that his average grades and middling job experience were somehow deemed weightier than genuine life skills--Renato's naked ambition, Angela's people skills, Vincent's quick thinking, Imaculada's grit--only because he articulated them better, just because he had the English nouns and verbs, the necessary tongue and lip placements, to say, 'I have made these myself. Listen.”
― Glenn Diaz, The Quiet Ones

“Here, then, happiness is obviously a form of strength, a subversion even, a modus of survival, even if at times it appears superficial and misplaced.

Besides, for all of boxing's brutality, there is lyricism in its rhythm, too, something that dreamy, romantic Filipinos perhaps recognize. It is almost too facile to ascribe too much significance in this metaphor, but this incongruous combination of lyrical violence is default in Manila, where beauty is scarce, and which flourishes side by side with the hideous. There is pride in that stubborn independence, I think, whether it is on the canvas of a boxing ring or history. How did that killer song end again?

The record shows
I took the blows
and did it my way.”
― Glenn Diaz, The Quiet Ones

“She gave it a shot' was how she planned to euphemize the five-year detour: to her therapist, to curious friends, to herself. Had she been younger, there would have been wailing for the lost years, but by now she knew that all things were necessary and vital in life's convoluted scaffolding.”
― Glenn Diaz, The Quiet Ones

“But then, didn’t everyone only tell their lives – truly tell their lives – to one person?”
― Hanya Yanagihara, A Little Life