Gao Xingjian Quotes

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.

When I first heard that I had won the prize, I thought that it was something for myself, that it was something personal, recognition of my writings. But there is such a strong reaction from Chinese people in particular. It’s been very passionate, overwhelming and passionate, Chinese people from all over the world.

Life is fragile, yet to obstinately struggle is natural.

With the beginning of life, comes the thirst for truth, whereas the ability to lie is gradually acquired in the process of trying to stay alive.

Many intellectuals feel themselves to be Supermen who are spokesmen for the people. But in my opinion, they’re to be pitied. Under Mao’s dictatorship, these poor sheep suffered the same fate as everyone else.

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

Everybody can write poetry, just like everybody knows how to make love.

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

Literature transcends national boundaries, racial boundaries. It goes deep into the issues that concern all human beings. That is why, when people read Greek tragedy – it doesn’t matter who reads it – they are still moved by it.

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

When I lived in China, my works were already being banned, and I couldn’t publish. In those days, when I was in China, I was writing for myself, so that’s the process of writing for myself that was the most important thing.

When I completed writing ‘Soul Mountain,’ I more or less closed the accounts with China for myself. I was 50 years old when I left, so China is already within me.

A writer has to fully defend his rights and his own worth.

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.

I was born Chinese, and I write in Chinese. I don’t think there’s any need to evade this… to a writer, as to a person, what matters is not his political label or his nationality, but whether he is a person and whether his work is worth looking at.

Experience has taught me that any kind of political grouping is oppressive. It’s the blind mass that crushes the individual.

Literature hasn’t come up with any new themes. The literature of all different times – it’s still dealing with how one resolves issues of existence.

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?

Literature is higher than politics, if not actually above politics.

You’re safe only when you can’t see anybody.

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

The destruction of Chinese traditional culture didn’t start in 1949. It started long before that, with the succession of revolutions. It was particularly bad during the Cultural Revolution, the destruction of traditional Chinese culture.

Various political parties, even if they’re in direct opposition with one another, still say they are the spokesperson for the people. The writer must speak his own words and not get mixed up with politics.

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

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

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

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

When you use words, you’re able to keep your mind alive. Writing is my way of reaffirming my own existence.

Truth refuses to be subservient to either politics or the market.

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