I believe in showing respect to the people you deal with and the situations you find yourself in by dressing with care.
I also appreciate the craftsmanship that goes into clothes that have been tailor-made for you. It’s an act of resistance against industrial conformity.
My fondest childhood memory happened when I was four, refusing to try mangoes, and my father insisting that they were nice. He was right.
My education at Princeton taught me to try to appear to not be working very hard. It just wasn’t cool. You had to do the work, and you had to perform really well, but it had to look effortless.
For sheer reading pleasure nothing compares to the Tintin and Asterix series, as well as the full-length works of Malaysian cartoonist Lat.
As an only child, I was always an observer. I liked to watch people, decode a situation from the body language of the participants, eavesdrop on their conversations and absorb the rhythms of their speech.
I suppose I built up a mental journal of the human condition, and at a certain point I needed to start telling stories.
Our duty as artists is to be more creative than the censors, to let the limitations inspire us. You can’t let them win.
Writing is equal parts therapy and trauma, man.
Very early in my career I got a love letter from a young lady who had watched a play of mine and decided she liked me, or at least the idea she had of me. It was flattering, I guess, but I was attached, so there was no way anything was going to happen.
I create playlists for each project I’m working on, with music to match the mood, usually instrumental or in a language other than English, so that there are no lyrics to interfere with creating sentences in my mind. Anything that takes me out of myself without leading me too firmly to any one place.
It’s better to listen than to speak.
I unwind like any other dude on the street; I swim and read magazines but things get interesting when I plot world domination.
It’s a huge blessing to have Claire (Wong) as both my professional and life partner. It’s always a joy to depend on someone you share your life goals and work ethic with.
The trick is to make sure you can stop talking about work once in a while and carve out time to just be a couple.
My family keeps me sane and grounded, so even if I don’t always know where I’m going, I always know where I came from.
My epitaph should read like this: “He was compassionate and kind, and good at his job.”
