120 Quotes by F. Sionil José

We write from life and call it literature, and literature lives because we are in it.

Literature suffers because writers give their books to colleagues who will then write glowing reviews or saccharine introductions.

Time will come that all that we love, we will eventually lose, and all that we hate we will eventually face.

You will be surprised how much punishment the human body can take, if there is enough will - or faith.

...the mind can also be kind and does blot out those episodes of our existence that we can't erase in our consciousness.

Duty comes in many forms; at times duty to country may conflict with duty to family. Yet, with a lucid mind the guises can be torn away and in the end, duty becomes but one, and that duty is to value justice above everything--to do what is right not because someone ordains it, but because the heart which is the seat of truth decrees it so.

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...

I was shocked at the revelation of her vaulting ambition, her greed. I should have loathed her or, knowing what kind of a person she was, I should have realized the futility of any personal attachment, the impossibility of its maturing into something warm, human enduring. By then, I had known a bit of the prostitute's psychology, the ruthlessness which marked her relationship with men,but I ignored these.

I knew long ago that their blood is the same as mine. No stranger can come battering down my door and say he brings me light. This I have within me.