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The Great Gatsby
Hamlet

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The Great Gatsby
Hamlet

F. Sionil Jose Quotes

Our appreciation of folk art will strengthen our identities, our pride in belonging to a community. People trained in the creative use of their hands soon acquire skills, excellent craftsmanship which will be the most important measure of how well we can industrialize.

– F. Sionil Jose

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

– F. Sionil Jose

I said that if I were an industrialist or entrepreneur, I would invest in agriculture-based enterprises, for there is so much that can be done in manufacturing, in food preservation.

– F. Sionil Jose

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

– F. Sionil Jose

I can’t understand Urdu, Bahasa or Russian, but when the Pakistani Faiz, the Indonesian Rendra and the Russian Rosdentvensky declaim, I can feel the living throb of rhythm and music, the warmth and passion of their poetry, as do the hundreds, not a mere roomful, of poetry lovers in the audience.

– F. Sionil Jose

A weak people and its equally debilitated leaders are bludgeoned by history. It maims them into the cripples that they are meant to be.

– F. Sionil Jose

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.

– F. Sionil Jose

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.

– F. Sionil Jose

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.

– F. Sionil Jose

Tourists as well as natives want to see cultural achievements – whether it’s the Banaue Terraces, the old churches or museums.

– F. Sionil Jose

Indeed, the existence of class, of social hierarchy, is as old as man himself. It prevails in the jungle where strength determines hierarchy; among men, it has also been savagely the same, whereby rulers vested with power through personal combat, or through lineal heritage as in the case of royalty, ravage their subjects.

– F. Sionil Jose

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.

– F. Sionil Jose

Writing is a solitary profession; you are really alone when you write. Then the emotions become well shaped and distinct. But their transition into words must be done deliberately and with rigid artistry.

– F. Sionil Jose

Of course, we are all egoists. Egoism is so much a part of our humanity.

– F. Sionil Jose

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.

– F. Sionil Jose

We recognize the distinctness of Asian art when we turn to its traditional forms, recognize it as Japanese, Chinese and Indian, even Balinese or Thai.

– F. Sionil Jose

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.

– F. Sionil Jose

All dictators, the rich and famous, to the lowest security guard who holds a gun, easily forget that power is transitory.

– F. Sionil Jose

Poetry is emotion, passion, love, grief – everything that is human. It is not for zombies by zombies.

– 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 the Cebuanos.

– F. Sionil Jose

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.

– F. Sionil Jose

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

– F. Sionil Jose

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