F. Sionil José

“We must respect courage wherever we encounter it. -Tom”

— F. Sionil José

“In death, all men are brothers. -Istak”

— F. Sionil José

“It is what one really owns in the end, a name." -Istak”

— F. Sionil José

“When you love someone, that love has no limit, no measure”

— F. Sionil José

“There is so much that the past can teach us. -The Cripple”

— F. Sionil José

“Hunger precipitated despair.”

— F. Sionil José

When I wake up every morning, I thank God for the new day.

— F. Sionil Jose

“Forgive those who are ignorant. -Bit-tik”

— F. Sionil José

We write from life and call it literature, and literature lives because we are in it.

— F. Sionil José

I regret that I have not written more, shouted louder, and acted out my beliefs.

— F. Sionil Jose

“But all men die--as anonymously as they had lived, no matter what their achievements. -Istak”

— F. Sionil José

Writers are historians, too. It is in literature that the greater truths about a people and their past are found.

— F. Sionil Jose

“The Philippines just need 100 youth to stand up for their country”

— F. Sionil José

I am for poetry that is admired by peasant and aristocrat alike.

— F. Sionil Jose

“We cannot be rooted in the past forever. We must not be sentimental.”

— F. Sionil José

I tell young people who ask me about a future in writing not to go into it unless they get married to…

— F. Sionil Jose

“To THOSE who want to lift this nation from the dungheap of history, the past does not matter — only the present,…

— F. Sionil José

“I have been blinded, as many of us have been blinded by our needs. I had thought of only my family--this was…

— F. Sionil José

We are shallow because our media are so horribly shallow. Every morning, I peruse the papers, and there is so little to…

— F. Sionil Jose

My wife and I often visit Rosales and the Ilokos as a matter of habit or whim induced by nostalgia, homesickness -…

— F. Sionil Jose

I envy those Hindus and Buddhists who have in their religion philosophy and ancestor worship which build in the believer a continuity…

— F. Sionil Jose

Christianity doesn't demand that we worship our ancestors. If we don't remember our ancestors, then, in all likelihood, we cannot also recall…

— F. Sionil Jose

The ethnic differences among Filipinos are very real. The paucity of arable land, for instance, explains the industry of the Ilokanos and…

— F. Sionil Jose

You perhaps know me as a novelist. Literature is one of the arts - in fact, the noblest of the arts. That…

— F. Sionil Jose

“This was one lesson that the war taught me - that every event in time presents opportunities that are recognizable only to…

— F. Sionil José

We compromise ourselves the day we are born. If we are looking for the original sin, there it is- our incapacity to…

— F. Sionil José

We must know our own roles. We should also know the roles that others play, and the rules such roles follow. In…

— F. Sionil Jose

To fund major cultural efforts, we must not rely alone on government and foundation patronage; if the farmer can spend for beer,…

— F. Sionil Jose

“Never, never hide your pain, scream as if you are dying so you will not be harmed more. Never, never hide your…

— F. Sionil José

Past middle age, some friends suggested that I should have my eyebags removed, the deepening creases on my face stretched. I often…

— F. Sionil Jose

“Why do you butcher your carabao and feed a throng because your son is getting a wife?" Father always blustered to them…

— F. Sionil José

“Conquest by force is not sanctioned by God. The Americans have no right to be here. We will defeat them because we…

— F. Sionil José

“There is nothing in the world which an artist cannot recreate into something poetic, ennobling. And why do we read these things?…

— F. Sionil José

“We go from one darkness to another and in between, the hidden light of the world, of knowledge. We open our eyes…

— F. Sionil José

The obscenities of this country are not girls like you. It is the poverty which is obscene, and the criminal irresponsibility of…

— F. Sionil José

“But God, I don’t doubt You. I can see You in the morning, in the dew on the grass. Should I worship…

— F. Sionil José

“Sometimes you look at yourself in the mirror, any mirror, and you wonder why that nose looks as it does, or those…

— F. Sionil José

“But like my father, I have not done anything. I could not, because I am me, because I died long ago.”

— F. Sionil José

“You will be surprised how much punishment the human body can take, if there is enough will - or faith.”

— F. Sionil José

“Epidermis, epidermis! How could it mean so much, when underneath, all blood was red?”

— F. Sionil José