Psyche Roxas-Mendoza

"Memory is all that matters in the end"

"You will always be special to someone. Unless you grow so old, everyone you knew went ahead"

"The time we were together, we were the best we can be for each other."

"The most difficult lesson is not being bitter—that balancing you need to do so you don't become bitter, even as you cease being gullible."

"It’s just proper for old people to die. Otherwise, they’d go insane in a world too different from the one they knew."

"Think about it: If you have saved just enough to have your own house, your own car, a modicum of income to pay for food, clothes, and a few conveniences, and your everyday responsibilities start and end only with yourself… You can afford not to do anything outside of breathing, eating, and sleeping. Time would be an endless, white blanket. Without folds and pleats or sudden rips. Monday would look like Sunday, going sans adrenaline, slow, so slow and so unnoticed. Flowing, flowing, time is flowing in phrases, in sentences, in talk exchanges of people that come as pictures and videos, appearing, disappearing, in the safe, distant walls of Facebook. Dial fast food for a pizza, pasta, a burger or a salad. Cooking is for those with entire families to feed. The sala is well appointed. A day-maid comes to clean. Quietly, quietly she dusts a glass figurine here, the flat TV there. No words, just a ho-hum and then she leaves as silently as she came. Press the shower knob and water comes as rain. A TV remote conjures news and movies and soaps. And always, always, there’s the internet for uncomplaining company. Outside, little boys and girls trudge along barefoot. Their tinny, whiny voices climb up your windowsill asking for food. You see them. They don’t see you. The same way the vote-hungry politicians, the power-mad rich, the hey-did-you-know people from newsrooms, and the perpetually angry activists don’t see you. Safely ensconced in your tower of concrete, you retreat. Uncaring and old./HOW EASY IT IS NOT TO CARE"

"I firmly believe that if you pray long enough, if you wish hard enough, God will grant you at least one wish in your lifetime."

"A lie is more profitable than the truth. That is why we have elections."

"We spend our lives striving to be persons of influence and consequence, when all that is required is to consistently do good to others."

"The world is old and full of lessons. We will not lack for examples. We only have to look around carefully, earnestly, so we can learn and realize that success, to be genuine, must not be propelled by greed."

"He was a son of the revolutionary movement when he and the revolutionary movement were still pristine. It was a special time for Filipino activists—a time when a hundred flowers bloomed and a thousand thoughts contended in a movement that did not know yet the price of betrayal from within. But flowers wilt and thoughts give way to rancor with the passing of years. And so some may grieve not his passing, while others fall to the ground in tears./FOR HORACIO BOY MORALES, JR. (September 11, 1943 – February 29, 2012)"

"It is in the little moments that we live the longest. Everything else is existence."

"No story is complete until it is written."

"The road to home is when we find our hearts filled with the stories of our people."

"Writers, when they’re good, open windows to worlds held precious and priceless by the soul. It is a sad day when they leave the earth, like having the windows shut for good. Where will the world be without good writers?"

"You can change your life or not change it. It really doesn’t matter in the end. Life as humans live it is too fleeting, too incidental, too minisculefor the universe to keep forever. So just do good to others; be good, allbecause it makes you happy,happy beyond fame, power, andeternity."

"There are those who live and die giving love, without receiving any. And those who live life just taking, never giving. So the universe gives a boon to a few lucky souls: Who they love will love them back—all their lives."

"It is the kernel of truth in every story that makes its writing beautiful beyond standards."

"They say you start weaving clearer, sharper memories after you've been to a place at least twice. Because then the reflection is more of validation. Let the rush come to you and let your senses be flushed the first time. There will be time for reflection after you've had your fill."

"Hate is a very strong, pure emotion to be wasted on people you don't care about."