Lane Nishikawa

“I never interviewed someone so that I could put his story in the film. There is no specific person that I had in mind when I was writing the script. It just seemed that when I was ready to put it together, my head was filled with so many stories and people that it just flowed out. I almost didn’t have to think, just feel.”

“I try to get everybody to enter my world real quickly. I think the audience starts to see that it’s a person going through a struggle, (and) with each performance piece, the exchange just keeps growing.”

“Much of the time, we’re still looked at as foreigners, despite being here for four or five generations. This gives an overview of our experiences, how varied they are. Really, I want Asian Americans to look at ourselves, to be proud of our heritage. For non-Asians, I just want to inform. . . . Of course, I hope everybody is entertained along the way.”

“I would always approach a show from the perspective of what I wanted to say historically, politically and socially. I examine the Asian American experience through my eyes and my perceptions. One thing I can tell you is that people who come to one of my shows, will leave the theater with a totally different perspective of the Asian American male…”