theatre-directors

"[Tinikling] does become a contest between the dancer and the clapper."

"I envy my foreign counterparts—Bournonville of Copenhagen, Fokine and Petipa of Moscow, Balanchine of New York, Ashton of London—because even after their retirement, even after their death, their works are kept alive through continuous performance…But what steps are being taken to preserve choreographies created in the Philippines? Where are the dance-dramas I created and which won for me the title of National Artist? Nowhere to be seen."

"Dancing to a Bamboo Beat The New York Times"

"I just hope to be remembered as a good human being. And that I tried my best."

"Men are lying when they say they are terrified of blood."

"When you put on a mask, you cannot lie. The mask is born with man because the mask and the party ensure that everything is a joke, everything is for laughter. Long live the mask that gives everyone the chance for another life, within parentheses of freedom without paying taxes. Satire is the most effective weapon against power: power cannot tolerate humor, not even rulers who call themselves democrats, because laughter frees man from his fears."

"There is no greater equation than the stupidity of men, especially when those men are in power."

"Our homeland is the whole world. Our law is freedom. We have only one idea: revolution in our hearts."

"Someday I'll be sad again I will come back to you again, Christ... I'm still going to cry so hard, That through my tears I will see you, Christ... And such great mourning I will complain to you, Christ... That my spirit will kneel before You And then my heart will break Christ..."

"Everyone kiss my ass."

"Life is torture. It's best not to be born at all. But this luck is one in a thousand."

"Autumn begins with mimosas Golden, fragile and nice It's you, you're that girl Which looked out into the street towards me. The hall smelled of your letters, when I came back from school out of breath, and on the streets in light autumn bright angels flew after me."

"Please! Leave me for a second life, Like for a second year in the same class."

"Adel Imam traces a “fine line between anger and sarcasm” and is an “actor who believes in life, in freedom, in challenges and thereby brings us a sense of optimism even in the darkest moments.”"

"The horns cannot be too heavy for the head of the cow that must bear them."

"Until the rotten tooth is pulled out, the mouth must chew with caution."

"Two rams cannot drink in the same bucket at the same time. They will lock horns."

"I asked my new wife to stay with my brother until I thatch my roof. Soon she begins to put on weight, and she says he is kind and gentle. But slowly, the day breaks and her stomach reveal the secret"

"I clear the earth and another says the land belongs to his mother. I plant my seeds, and another says it belongs to his father. My seeds grow, And he says he worked hard during the planting season. Like the lazy python, he has always had eyes on my eggs………"

"When the frog in front falls in pit, others behind take caution."

"Multi-lingual interpretation is done concurrently among members of the group [the characters], but in subliminal whispers."

"Me fight am sojar for Lugard. 1901, we take am Kontagora. West Africa Frontier Force. Me dey 1902 we take am Bauchi, go Borno. Lugard telli me...(patting himself on the back) 'Good man, good man!' 1903 - we take am Kano, take am Sokoto. Lugard make am me Corpul-one rope..."

"He says it's not that we don't want to be alive."

"If you rise too early the dew of life will soak you."

"When a man's wife is mad, the whole town knows, but when a man is mad, only his wife knows."

"Apprentice barber is sitting on the stool. Nothing to do, he is leafing through the pages of some tattered newspapers…all of which report on Talks – all spices of Talks…On the bench at the other side of the shop the Master Barber himself lies full length, face heavenwards asleep…"

"Ovonramwen our Lord. A rare one that has no stain, nor does he has dirt. One whose character is as white as the white bird (enibokun)."

"It is not changing into the lion that is hard, it is getting the tail of a lion"

"By trying often, the monkey learns to jump from tree to tree without falling."

"Kolanut last long in the mouths of them who value it."

"Barber’s arm stops in mid-air. It trembles visibly. Man throws his arms up triumphantly. Starts scooping money into his pocket."

"Everything really depends on our vote…any vote cast for a politician tomorrow on the basis of sheer fatherhood by birth; or of brotherhood by clan; or sisterhood by religion, is your doom and my doom."

"Poverty has also endeavoured to enlist the usefulness of a hook-up wooden radio and a standing fan - albeit a scrawny and temperamental oddity."

"My people. Children of our fathers. Sickness is like rain. Does the rain fall on one roof alone? No. Does it fall on one body and not on another? No. Whoever the rain sees, on him it rains. Does it not? It is the same with sickness."

"When the rain falls on the leopard, does it wash off its spots? Has the richness of kingly life washed off the love of our King for his people?"

"A man who cannot control his wife is like a chief who cannot control his subjects."

"When the chameleon brings forth a child, is not that child expected to dance? As we have made you King, act as King."

"Oba Ovonramwen, son of Adolo. Here in subdued glory with the white man's feathers fluttering like a peacock unsure of what weather of the day to spread its wonderful, colourful wings. Here I am, posing for the white man's jejers […..] He desired my empire and envied my position, and wanted my throne. […..] Here I am aboard the British yacht in leg irons."

"If you think you can drum for my downfall, and hope that, drum will sound, then your head is not good."

"A madman is like a child, he speaks the truth without knowing it."

"The hyena flirts with the hen, the hen is happy, not knowing that her death has come."

"If you think like a tortoise you can plot against me without my first cutting you down with my own tortoise tricks, then, fellow, madness is in your liver."

"When a man's beard is on fire, he does not worry about whose axe is sharp."

"A man who has no respect for his wife is like a farmer who has no respect for his farm."

"What's the man so proud about, fighting to advance British imperialism in Africa? And the two of you sitting there, encouraging such vulgar memories... From the day the White man set foot on our shores! First, Rum to our fathers: to confuse their minds. Then Rifles to shoot ourselves. The aftermath? Ruin. Slavery and external ruin!"

"Some people have started gathering in groups with people of their own kind. That too must stop"

"Large-faced, burly hunk of choice meat and big bones. He is affluently attired although with a touch of the bumpkin."

"You do me great wrong, therefore to think that, like a rock in the middle of a lake, forever cooled by flowing waters, I do not know, and cannot know the sun's hotness that burns and dries up the open land."

"To get fully cured one needs patience. The moon moves slowly but by daybreak it crosses the sky."

"Have I been sleeping? If so, I am sick in the head: for only a madman would go to sleep with his roof on fire."