Gao Xingjian Quotes

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

  Gao Xingjian

  Dream, Real, Self

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• 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

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

  Gao Xingjian

  Writing, Suffering, Ease

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

  Gao Xingjian

  Freedom, Heart, Burden

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• 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.

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• 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

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• 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

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• 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

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• 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.

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• 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.

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• 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

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

  Gao Xingjian

  Yield, Literature, Starting

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

  Gao Xingjian

  Love, Men, Confusing

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• 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

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• Maybe there isn't a God after all, maybe there's only a universe rotating by itself like a millstone.

  Gao Xingjian

  God, Rotating, Universe

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• 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

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• 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.

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• 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

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• Some distance away is a white azalea bush which stuns me with its stately beauty. This is pristine natural beauty. it is irrepressible, seeks no reward, and is without goal, a beauty derived neither from symbolism nor metaphor and needing neither analogies nor associations.

  Gao Xingjian

  Distance, Symbolism, White

  "Soul Mountain". Book by Gao Xingjian, 1989.

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• 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.

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• 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.

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• When I came overseas, I realized that there are many ideologies and many trends, and it's also very hard to produce honest art and honest literature. I decided that I didn't want to follow any of these ideologies or trends, because that's also a kind of pressure that doesn't allow absolute freedom. So I decided that I was only going to produce works that were satisfactory to me, and that meant not following any trends and being anti-ideological.

  Gao Xingjian

  Art, Pressure, Literature

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• 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

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• I decided that I did not want to follow any of these ideologies or trends, because these also exerted a kind of pressure, and obstructed absolute creative freedom.

  Gao Xingjian

  Creative, Trends, Want

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• A good man never fights with a woman.

  Gao Xingjian

  Fighting, Men, Good Man

  Gao Xingjian (2009). “Buying a Fishing Rod for My Grandfather: Stories”, p.79, Zondervan

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