Gao Xingjian Quotes - Page 2

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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.

  6 Copy quote

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

  Gao Xingjian

  Adversity, Problem, Reason

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• If literature is to transcend political interference and return to being a testimony of man and his existential predicament, it needs first to break away from ideology. To be without "isms," is to return to the individual and to return to viewing the world through the eyes of the writer, an individual who relies on his own perceptions and does not act as a spokesman for the people. The people already have rulers and election campaigners speaking in their name.

  Gao Xingjian

  Eye, Men, Names

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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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• 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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• I believe in science but I also believe in fate.

  Gao Xingjian

  Believe, Fate, I Believe

  Gao Xingjian (2010). “Soul Mountain”, p.29, HarperCollins UK

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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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• 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”

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

  Gao Xingjian

  Simple, Layers, Facts

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• The human need for language is not simply for the transmission of meaning, it is at the same time listening to and affirming a person's existence.

  Gao Xingjian

  Listening, Needs, Language

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

  Gao Xingjian

  Reality, Perception, Instant

  Gao Xingjian (2010). “Soul Mountain”, p.32, HarperCollins UK

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• They say it only takes an instant to have a dream; a dream can be compressed into hardtack.

  Gao Xingjian

  Dream, Instant

  Gao Xingjian (2009). “Buying a Fishing Rod for My Grandfather: Stories”, p.85, Zondervan

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• Realty exists only through experience, and it must be personal experience.

  Gao Xingjian

  Personal Experiences

  Gao Xingjian (2010). “Soul Mountain”, p.32, HarperCollins UK

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• 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

  Views, Nausea, Literature

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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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• 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

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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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• Literary revolution and revolutionary literature did not create a beautiful new world but instead divested literature of its basic nature, promoted violence, and, by resorting to linguistic violence, made a battlefield of this domain of spiritual freedom.

  Gao Xingjian

  Beautiful, Spiritual, Literature

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• Literature is subservient to nothing but truth.

  Gao Xingjian

  Literature, Subservient

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• Only a lunatic would think that art is superior to nature.

  Gao Xingjian

  Art, Thinking, Lunatic

  Gao Xingjian (2000). “Soul Mountain”

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• 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

  Self, Order, Mad

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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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• Soul Mountain, the story of one man’s quest for inner peace and freedom.

  Gao Xingjian

  Men, Soul, Inner Peace

  Gao Xingjian (2000). “Soul Mountain”

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