Gao Xingjian Quotes

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

A good man never fights with a woman.

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.

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.

Life is fragile, yet to obstinately struggle is natural.

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

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.

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

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

Body odour (known also as scent of the immortals) is a disgusting condition with an awful, nauseating smell.

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

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

The sand murmurs that it wants to swallow everything.

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

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

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

Literature is subservient to nothing but truth.

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.

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

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

Indeed, loft aspirations produce ideas.

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

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

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

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

I believe in science but I also believe in fate.

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.