Gao Xingjian Quotes

Quotes about:

• Dreams are more real than reality itself, they're closer to the self.

  Gao Xingjian

  Dream, Real, Self

  47 Copy quote

• Writing eases my suffering . . . writing is my way of reaffirming my own existence.

  Gao Xingjian

  Writing, Suffering, Ease

  17 Copy quote

• Loneliness is a prerequisite for freedom. Freedom depends on the ability to reflect, and reflection can only begin when one is alone.

  Gao Xingjian

  Loneliness, Reflection, Ability

  12 Copy quote

• Walk where your heart leads you, there are no restrictions and no burdens.

  Gao Xingjian

  Freedom, Heart, Burden

  15 Copy quote

• If you want to do anything, do it now, without compromise or concession, because you have only one life.

  Gao Xingjian

  Want, Compromise, Concessions

  "Living without 'isms'" by Maya Jaggi, www.theguardian.com. August 1, 2008.

  14 Copy quote

• The human species does not necessarily move in stages from progress to progress ... history and civilization do not advance in tandem. From the stagnation of Medieval Europe to the decline and chaos in recent times on the mainland of Asia and to the catastrophes of two world wars in the twentieth century, the methods of killing people became increasingly sophisticated. Scientific and technological progress certainly does not imply that humankind as a result becomes more civilized.

  Gao Xingjian

  War, Moving, Europe

  9 Copy quote

• Observing humans and observing oneself yields a clear-minded starting point for literature.

  Gao Xingjian

  Yield, Literature, Starting

  14 Copy quote

• To subvert is not the aim of literature, its value lies in discovering and revealing what is rarely known, little known, thought to be known but in fact not very well known of the truth of the human world. It would seem that truth is the unassailable and most basic quality of literature.

  Gao Xingjian

  Lying, Writing, Quality

  11 Copy quote

• What is essential is whether it is perceived and not whether it exists. To exist and yet not to be perceived is the same as not exist.

  Gao Xingjian

  Essentials

  "Soul Mountain". Book by Gao Xingjian, 1990.

  0 Copy quote

• In the history of literature there are many great enduring works which were not published in the lifetimes of the authors. If the authors had not achieved self-affirmation while writing, how could they have continued to write?

  Gao Xingjian

  Writing, Self, Literature

  12 Copy quote

• It's in literature that true life can be found. It's under the mask of fiction that you can tell the truth.

  Gao Xingjian

  True Life, Fiction, Literature

  "Living without 'isms'". Interview with Maya Jaggi, www.theguardian.com. August 1, 2008.

  8 Copy quote

• I don't want to be a strong hero who can save society. I just want to save myself.

  Gao Xingjian

  Strong, Hero, Want

  "Living without 'isms'". Interview with Maya Jaggi, www.theguardian.com. August 1, 2008.

  6 Copy quote

• You contemplate and you wander without any worries, between heaven and earth, in your own private world, and in this way you acquire supreme freedom.

  Gao Xingjian

  Worry, Heaven, World

  3 Copy quote

• A good work can be communicated across languages ... [provided one does not] fall into the trap of narrow-minded nationalistic or chauvinistic thinking.

  Gao Xingjian

  Fall, Thinking, Doe

  6 Copy quote

• If, while observing the boundless universe, the writer is able to scrutinise his own self as well as others, the resulting incisiveness of his observations will far surpass objective descriptions of reality.

  Gao Xingjian

  Writing, Reality, Self

  5 Copy quote

• For me, writing [was] a question of survival...I could not trust anyone, even my family. The atmosphere was so poisoned. People even in your own family could turn you in.

  Gao Xingjian

  Writing, People, Atmosphere

  7 Copy quote

• Love is so holy, so confusing. It makes a man anxious, tormented. Love, how can I define it?

  Gao Xingjian

  Love, Men, Confusing

  8 Copy quote

• Life is probably a tangle of love and hate permanently knotted together.

  Gao Xingjian

  Hate, Love And Hate, Together

  Gao Xingjian (2000). “Soul Mountain”

  3 Copy quote

• Since it was announced that I had been awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, the Chinese Foreign Ministry has condemned my works and criticized them harshly. All of my works are now banned from getting into China or being published in China. What author would want to return to a country that banned his or her books?

  Gao Xingjian

  Country, Book, Chinese

  6 Copy quote

• You should know that there is little you can seek in this world, that there is no need for you to be so greedy, in the end all you can achieve are memories, hazy, intangible, dreamlike memories which are impossible to articulate. When you try to relate them, there are only sentences, the dregs left from the filter of linguistic structures.

  Gao Xingjian

  Memories, Trying, Filters

  Gao Xingjian (2000). “Soul Mountain”

  9 Copy quote

• Literature remains an indispensable human activity, in which the reader and the writer are engaged of their own volition. Hence, literature has no duty to the masses or society, and ethical or moral pronouncements added by busybody critics are of no concern to the writer.

  Gao Xingjian

  Literature, Moral, Ethical

  5 Copy quote

• There are numerous layers to truth, and the simple and superficial statement of facts cannot satisfy the writer.

  Gao Xingjian

  Simple, Layers, Facts

  0 Copy quote

• The enterprise of describing something in language that has never been described before is a very difficult thing to do. When you decide to do away with old cliches or old phraseologies, and to come up with a new way of saying something, it's extremely difficult.

  Gao Xingjian

  Way, Language, Cliche

  "A Conversation with Gao Xingjian". Interview with David Der-Wei Wang, asiasociety.org.

  0 Copy quote

• In the snow outside my window I see a small green frog, one eye blinking and the other wide open, unmoving, looking at me. I know this is God.

  Gao Xingjian

  Eye, Snow, Green

  "Soul Mountain". Book by Gao Xingjian, 1990.

  2 Copy quote

• Once the buttons are undone, you know how it'll all end. It's all in the game, there are no miracles.

  Gao Xingjian

  Games, Miracle, Buttons

  3 Copy quote

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