F. Sionil José Quotes
We write from life and call it literature, and literature lives because we are in it.
No man stops caring as long as he breathes. As long as he has a mind and memory, he will care. This is what separates us from the animals. We have feelings.
Time will come that all that we love, we will eventually lose, and all that we hate we will eventually face.
You will find that our enemies are our own kin. It is they who betray us. So learn this most important lesson-in the end, our worst enemy is ourselves
Just because you have so much to give does not mean that they'll all be accepted. There's more to giving than just giving.
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.
The Japanese bureaucracy is unique. It is also very powerful, although it is now the object of so much criticism. Many of Japans brightest made it a pillar of strength and continuity.
We are shallow because we are mayabang, ego driven, and do not have the humility to understand that we are only human, much too human to mistake knowledge for wisdom.
I do not want to be bored listening to music that is muffled and known only to the poet himself.
She was benediction, a touch of faith, life itself coursing through my veins collapsed in age and turmoil, and to my fatigued and weary heart, a new and vibrant throb.
Literature suffers because writers give their books to colleagues who will then write glowing reviews or saccharine introductions.
...the mind can also be kind and does blot out those episodes of our existence that we can't erase in our consciousness.
Only with steadfast memories can we now be strong so as to undo the mistakes of the past, to begin anew and build from the rubble of their betrayal...
Ubi boni, malum prosperat (Where good men are silent, evil prospers)
You will be surprised how much punishment the human body can take, if there is enough will - or faith.