The Quiet Ones Quotes

“All that we did in this world was to salvage scraps of freedom.”
― 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

“In my loneliness, I kept waiting for that sententious conversation with a stranger who was obviously a proxy for God, during which we affirmed man’s inner goodness and the divine signature in all things. There was nothing of the sort.”
― Glenn Diaz, The Quiet Ones

“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

“Memories of beginnings, when things neared the end, were always kinder in hindsight, and the idea of a second chance seemed, at worst, harmless.”
― 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

“Learning English was like lifting a veil, one which would be, he'd learn, impossible to fully restore.”
― Glenn Diaz, The Quiet Ones

“A few moments into the ride, I saw Reynaldo's figure down the road, walking erectly, holding something. Seeing him there, amid the banana trees and huts and roadside stands with petrol in Coke bottles, I felt a distinct envy: he belonged here, in this place. He strode with a correctness and security I knew I would never feel in this country.

Which was fine. Displacement, it was a valid way to live.”
― Glenn Diaz, The Quiet Ones