"You don't have to be long in the country to appreciate that the jeepney expresses the Filipino spirit: emotional, exuberant and celebratory, endearing and unwary."- Michael Palin, English comedian, Travel Author, Actor, Writer
"The revolt in Tayug made me aware of the circumscribed life of the peasants... I was determined to leave that environment and all its crushing forces, and if I were successful in escaping unscathed, I would go back someday to understand what it meant to be born of the peasantry. I would go back because I was part of it, because I could not really escape from it no matter where I went or what became of me. I would go back to give significance to all that was starved and thwarted in my life."-Carlos Bulosan, Poet and Author (America is in the Heart, A personal History. 1946)
"When I wrote the Fiesta everybody was against fiestas. Everybody wanted to eradicate it, they felt it was the greatest bond against progress…but I saw the fiesta as our highest community expression…that was the impression it made on me so I wanted to preserve it."- Alejandro "Anding" Roces, National Artist of the Philippines for Literature (when asked to talk about his motivation for writing one of his famous books, "The Fiesta" that came out in 1980.)
"For the record, I love humanity, it's people I can't stand."- Jessica Zafra, Author and Columnist (Twisted- The Night of the Living Twisted)
"Filipinos have lived 400 years in a convent and 50 years in Hollywood."- Carmen Guerero Nakpil, Author
"Instead of aspiring to be a mere province, aspire to be a nation; develop an independent not colonial mentality; resignation is not always a virtue it is a crime when it encourages oppression. There are no tyrants where there are no slaves."- Jose P. Rizal, Philippine National Hero
"I would prefer a government run like hell by Filipinos to one run like Heaven by Americans because no matter how bad a Filipino government might be, it can still be improved."- Commonwealth President Manuel L. Quezon
