Top 44 F. Sionil Jose Quotes

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

From antiquity, Latin died but is still studied in seminaries and elite universities. So did Sanskrit in Asia. iI was replaced by Pali, but even Pali died, too. Linguists say the only ancient language which was resuscitated from the grave was Hebrew of Israel.

Class – or the economic status of individuals – is evident in all societies, some very well stratified by a rigid caste system determined by birth.

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

My reading of philosophy and history is desultory; I know so much and yet so little.

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.

I envy those Hindus and Buddhists who have in their religion philosophy and ancestor worship which build in the believer a continuity with the past, and that most important ingredient in the building of a nation – memory.

Professional societies are sooner or later fractured by the ego of their leaders. Everyone wants to be president, chairman, CEO; no one wants to be a mere follower.

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

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

I find it always pleasurable talking with young people, particularly those aspiring to be writers, out of nostalgia, and because I’ve always felt that we oldies can learn so much from them and draw from them inspiration in our flagging and rickety years.

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

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.

We are shallow because our media are so horribly shallow. Every morning, I peruse the papers, and there is so little to read in them. It is the same with radio – all that noise, that artifice.

Poetry, fiction as novels or short stories – these are autonomous as created by their authors. They should stand on their own, like pieces of furniture that should be judged as to their usefulness, elegance.

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

What most readers do not realize is that it takes a particular genius to write funny, to satirize.

The influence of teachers extends beyond the classroom, well into the future. It is they who shape and enrich the minds of the young, who touch their hearts and souls. It is they who shape a nation’s future.

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.

Literature – Eastern and Western – abounds with stories, myths, legends about the search for youth, for eternal life.

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.

I do not want to be bored listening to music that is muffled and known only to the poet himself.

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.

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.

Like so many poor Ilokanos, my grandparents left their village, for it could no longer sustain them. The Ilocos is a narrow coastal plain where, so often, the mountain drops to the sea. Land hunger had always afflicted the Ilokanos and made them migratory.

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.

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.

Some lucky people can be funny without half trying because they actually look funny, because acting funny is in their bones – fun as funny, not funny as crude slapstick.

Christianity doesn’t demand that we worship our ancestors. If we don’t remember our ancestors, then, in all likelihood, we cannot also recall the distant past.

This is the harsh truth about us: not only do Filipinos ignore books, literature – we do not understand how important the arts are – not just to those of us who work at it, but to the nation as a whole.

We are shallow because we have become enslaved by gross materialism, the glitter of gold and its equivalents, for which reason we think that only the material goods of this earth can satisfy us and we must therefore grab as much as can while we are able.

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

I have always admired teachers because teaching, like the priesthood, medicine and writing, is a vocation. You don’t become a teacher because you want wealth. It is the same with writing.

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.

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.

In the visual arts, particularly painting, I distrust all those abstractions, those artificial constructions. I have a very simple way of judging them: if I can do them, they are not art.

Colonialism subdues in many dulcet guises. It conquered under the pretext of spreading Christianity, civilization, law and order, to make the world safe for democracy.

Art, whatever form it takes, requires hard work, craftsmanship and creativity. As a writer, I know my grammar, cadence, the music of prose, and the art of the narrative.

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.

I write entirely in English; Tagalog chauvinists chide me for this. I feel no guilt in doing so. But I am sad that I cannot write in my native Ilokano. History demanded this; if it isn’t English I am using now, I would most probably be writing in Spanish like Rizal, or even German or Japanese.

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.

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

The heart of the theater is the play itself, how it dramatizes life to make it meaningful entertainment. To achieve depth and universality, the playwright must subject himself to intense critique, to know human character and behavior, and finally to construct art from the most mundane of human experience.

For them who delay aging, who infuse decrepit bodies with youth and beauty – they must rejoice in the fullness of their deeds.