Gao Xingjian Quotes & Sayings

In the century that has just passed, many of the intellectual elite went mad. It was as if, with the death of God, everyone suddenly turned into a saviour who wanted either to annihilate the obsolete world order or to establish a utopia. Naturally, there were writers among those who went mad. The fact that they had knowledge did not exempt intellectuals: there is madness everywhere. When one loses control over one's self, the result is madness. — Gao Xingjian

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

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

he was as if a "reborn" human being, a "fundamentalist" as a human being. — Gao Xingjian

Man tends to think that he is a creator, that he is like God. This is especially true of intellectuals, and in the last century, intellectuals tended to forget that they were like everyone else. Writing this book was a description of man going from a state of God back to a state of man, back to being a normal person. — Gao Xingjian

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

When a man gets to middle age shouldn't he look for a peaceful and stable existence, find a not-too-demanding sort of a job, stay in a mediocre position, become a husband and a father, set up a comfortable home, put money in the bank and add to it every month so there'll be something for old age and a little left over for the next generation? — Gao Xingjian

When God talks to humans he doesn't want humans to hear his voice. — Gao Xingjian

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

A good man never fights with a woman. — Gao Xingjian

Although as an individual Gao had readily denounced the Chinese authorities for the events of 4 June in the French and Italian media, he refused to compromise his integrity as a writer. His stance angered both political sides. — Gao Xingjian

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. — Gao Xingjian

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

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

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

You're safe only when you can't see anybody. — Gao Xingjian

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

The sand murmurs that it wants to swallow everything. — Gao Xingjian

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

As a male writer, women are always what men pursue, and their world is always a mystery. So I always tried to present as many views as possible on women's worlds. — Gao Xingjian

I hadn't originally intended to do any reading, what if I did read one book more or one book less, whether I read or not wouldn't make a difference, I would still be waiting to get cremated. — Gao Xingjian

You've lived in the city for a long time and need to feel that you have a hometown. — Gao Xingjian

Reality is myself, reality is only the perception of this instant and it can't be related to another person. — Gao Xingjian

I believe in science but I also believe in fate. — Gao Xingjian

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

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

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

At the height of the Cultural Revolution, rather than risk having to face dire consequences for his accumulated writings, he burned several kilos of manuscripts (ten plays, and many short stories, poems, and essays). For him it was an ordeal to part with what he had written. Moreover, it took a long time to burn so much paper without creating smoke and arousing suspicions. — Gao Xingjian

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

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

Life is fragile, yet to obstinately struggle is natural. — Gao Xingjian

If everyone is a hero, then disasters and atrocities lose their meaning. It's only when certain people are heroes and others are not that these tragedies and disasters that mankind faces take on meaning. — Gao Xingjian

Reality exists only through experience, and it must be personal experience. However, once related, even personal experience becomes a narrative. — Gao Xingjian

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

Prior to that I had written many works but I was unable to present them for publication, in fact I had burned them all. — Gao Xingjian

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

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

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

I want to write a novel so profound that it would suffocate a fly. — Gao Xingjian

Reading this chapter is optional but as you've read it you've read it. — Gao Xingjian

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

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

Men always look differently at women, even if it's not your intention it is wrongly interpreted as such. — Gao Xingjian

Truth refuses to be subservient to either politics or the market. — Gao Xingjian

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

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

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

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

Young man, nature is not frightening, it's people who are frightening! You just need to get to know nature and it will become friendly. This creature known as man is of course highly intelligent, he's capable of manufacturing almost anything from rumours to test-tube babies and yet he destroys two to three species every day. This is the absurdity of man. — Gao Xingjian

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

Only a lunatic would think that art is superior to nature. — Gao Xingjian

Everyone has to have either this or that problem, if he can't find any problem, he loses all reason for living. — Gao Xingjian

In my view the time for rousing revolutionary literature has passed, because the revolution has already revolutionised itself to death and has left behind only bitterness and a sort of weariness, listlessness and even nausea. — Gao Xingjian

Soul Mountain, the story of one man's quest for inner peace and freedom. — Gao Xingjian

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

When you're telling a story, you've got to give details. — Gao Xingjian

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

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