Menu

Free Literature Study Guides
The Great Gatsby
Hamlet

Free Literature Study Guides
The Great Gatsby
Hamlet

F. Sionil Jose Quotes

I was a senior high school student at the Far Eastern University when the war with Japan broke out in 1941.

– 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, he can pay for good entertainment which he can understand, which he can identify with and which will fortify his spirit.

– F. Sionil Jose

What is needed in the theater, in fact for all our art forms, is a vibrant critical tradition.

– F. Sionil Jose

November is auspicious in so many parts of the country: the rice harvest is already in, the weather starts to cool, and the festive glow which precedes Christmas has began to brighten the landscape.

– F. Sionil Jose

Japan is very cosmopolitan – it values its origins, but a world view hovers above this narrow perspective. The interest of the Japanese in their folk culture is transcendental.

– F. Sionil Jose

The literary depiction of life and its moral dilemmas compel us to use our conscience, to make those infallible distinctions between right and wrong.

– F. Sionil Jose

It was in the sugar hacienda in Negros, Panay and in Central Luzon where I saw the injustices heaped upon the sugar workers, particularly the sacadas, or seasonal workers.

– F. Sionil Jose

For decades, as literary editor, I have followed the growth of our creative writing in English. In my Solidaridad Bookshop, half of my stock consists of Filipino books written in English and in the native languages.

– F. Sionil Jose

Language as a communication tool is the primary element from which literature is created. Even in pre-literate societies, it exists as songs, riddles, or epics that are chanted.

– F. Sionil Jose

The Japanese bureaucracy is unique. It is also very powerful, although it is now the object of so much criticism. Many of Japan’s brightest made it a pillar of strength and continuity.

– F. Sionil Jose

Self-respect, the value of ‘face,’ is universal but is most pronounced in China, then in Japan where the Confucian ethic is most influential.

– F. Sionil Jose

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

– F. Sionil Jose

Past middle age, some friends suggested that I should have my eyebags removed, the deepening creases on my face stretched. I often examined my face in the mirror, imagining how I’d look if I followed the suggestion. I decided to retain the old mug. I was too familiar and comfortable with it. And the final hindrance: the cost.

– F. Sionil Jose

You perhaps know me as a novelist. Literature is one of the arts – in fact, the noblest of the arts. That is not my opinion; it was first expressed by the ancients. As art, literature has many similarities with the other art forms.

– F. Sionil Jose

The past could liberate or imprison – it creates a nation’s character, provides the nourishment or the poison a people imbibe in their very marrow.

– F. Sionil Jose

Industrialization starts with the formation of capital – it does not matter how. It can be created by saving, by the state enforcing its will on the people, by the very rich themselves.

– F. Sionil Jose

Cultural values are, in themselves, neutral as well as universal, and so much depends on how individuals or ethnic groups use them. Values are influenced by so many factors such as geography, climate, religion, the economy and technology.

– F. Sionil Jose

You should live in a manner that should enable you to devote time to writing and contemplation. As is often said, the writer is at work even when he is simply looking out the window.

– F. Sionil Jose

Contemplation is a luxury of the middle class, the very rich.

– F. Sionil Jose

I can imagine the writers of China, England and France, crippled and unsure of themselves when they feel that the ghosts of Confucius, Mencius, Chaucer and Shakespeare and Victor Hugo are looking over their shoulders.

– F. Sionil Jose

In a much larger sense, the problem of Sabah is directly influenced by the duplicity of imperial Britain. For whatever devious reason, the dismantling of the British empire created divisions and violence due to ethnic and religious differences.

– F. Sionil Jose

My wife and I often visit Rosales and the Ilokos as a matter of habit or whim induced by nostalgia, homesickness – whatever draws pilgrims to worshipped sanctuaries. Or, perhaps, what compels moths to seek the votive flame.

– F. Sionil Jose

In the ’50s, I was traveling alone all over Mindanao, Basilan, all the way to Tawi-Tawi with just a camera and a notebook. I always stayed in the houses of Moros.

– F. Sionil Jose

All through history, a nation or a civilization’s enduring glory is articulated by its mega constructions – the pyramids, the lofty cathedrals of the Christian world.

– F. Sionil Jose

Ninoy Aquino was a friend; I knew his faults, which were outweighed by his virtues.

– F. Sionil Jose

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

– F. Sionil Jose

You can’t have integrity for breakfast, but try and keep it because it is perhaps the single most important word that defines not just writers but all human beings.

– F. Sionil Jose

We must know our own roles. We should also know the roles that others play, and the rules such roles follow. In this manner, social harmony is maintained. It is when we overstep our roles, or act without knowing them, that social anarchy ensues.

– F. Sionil Jose

In the Western tradition, the first writers were teachers and historians, vastly traveled, who spiced their reports with fantasies. They were also poets who sang and entertained prince and pauper.

– F. Sionil Jose

The Japanese covet important symbols – their heroic past as enshrined in Yasukuni, the Imperial family which has never been sullied by scandal.

– F. Sionil Jose

- 1
- 2