A revolution does not have to eat its children. In fact, it is those who are in power who could very well initiate revolutions. Let us not be old-fashioned and think only of armed uprisings of minorities as revolutions. Any movement that seeks to overhaul established attitudes is a revolution.

— F. Sionil José

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.

— F. Sionil José

FBI bond, alum prosper at (Where good men are silent, evil prospers)

— F. Sionil José

I am a commuter, not between the city and the village, although I do this frequently; not between the inane idealism of the classroom and the stifling reality beyond it, which I must do for survival and self-respect. I am a commuter between what I am now and what I was and would like to be, and it is this commuting at lightning speed, at the oddest hours, that has done havoc to me.

— F. Sionil José

I was shocked at the revelation of her vaulting ambition, her greed. I should have loathed her or, knowing what kind of 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.

— F. Sionil José

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

— F. Sionil José

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.

— F. Sionil José

Only with steadfast memories can we now be strong to undo the mistakes of the past, to begin anew and build from the rubble of their betrayal...

— F. Sionil José

Perhaps, this is what love has always been, whether it is for a woman of for a cause -- the readiness to give and not ask for anything in return, the unquestioning willingness to lose everything, even if that loss is as something as precious as life itself.

— F. Sionil José

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.

— F. Sionil José