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" Writers are historians, too. It is in literature that the greater truths about a people and their past are found. "
F. Sionil Jose
People
Literature
Past
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" 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
Ethnic
Real
Land
" 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
Life
Heart
Experience
" I am for poetry that is admired by peasant and aristocrat alike. "
F. Sionil Jose
Peasant
Poetry
Am
" Tourists as well as natives want to see cultural achievements - whether it's the Banaue Terraces, the old churches or museums. "
F. Sionil Jose
Want
Well
See
" 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
Farmer
Government
Beer
" 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
Talking
Find
Learn
" 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
Important
Breakfast
You
" 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
Looking
Live
Time
" 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
People
Meant To Be
Weak
" 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. "
F. Sionil Jose
Funny
Trying
People
" 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
Technology
Religion
Values
" As artists, we must not go down to the level of the masa; we should bring them up, intellectualize our languages, create classics out of our folk arts. We can do this if we are true to our roots and strive for excellence. "
F. Sionil Jose
True
Roots
Excellence
" 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
First
Teachers
Tradition
" 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
Language
Communication
Literature
" 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
Creative
Growth
Our
" What most readers do not realize is that it takes a particular genius to write funny, to satirize. "
F. Sionil Jose
Realize
Write
Funny
" I tell young people who ask me about a future in writing not to go into it unless they get married to someone rich. "
F. Sionil Jose
People
Future
Me
" 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. "
F. Sionil Jose
Art
I Can
Simple
" 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. "
F. Sionil Jose
Then
Worship
Past
" Poetry is emotion, passion, love, grief - everything that is human. It is not for zombies by zombies. "
F. Sionil Jose
Emotion
Grief
Love
" 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
Camera
Over
Alone
" In the end, religion teaches us to value truth, justice and freedom. "
F. Sionil Jose
Value
Truth
Religion
" When I wake up every morning, I thank God for the new day. "
F. Sionil Jose
Day
God
Morning
" What is needed in the theater, in fact for all our art forms, is a vibrant critical tradition. "
F. Sionil Jose
Fact
Art
Tradition
" 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
Poetry
Short
Elegance
" 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
Past
People
Nation
" 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. "
F. Sionil Jose
Our
Noise
Radio
" 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
Reason
Violence
Problem
" Class - or the economic status of individuals - is evident in all societies, some very well stratified by a rigid caste system determined by birth. "
F. Sionil Jose
Class
Birth
Economic
" 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. "
F. Sionil Jose
Everyone
Professional
Ego