Gao Xingjian
Gao Xingjian
Gao Xingjianis a Chinese émigré novelist, playwright, and critic who in 2000 was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature “for an oeuvre of universal validity, bitter insights and linguistic ingenuity.” He is also a noted translator, screenwriter, stage director, and a celebrated painter. In 1998, Gao was granted French citizenship...
NationalityChinese
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth4 January 1940
CountryChina
Gao Xingjian quotes about
smell body scent
Body odour (known also as scent of the immortals) is a disgusting condition with an awful, nauseating smell.
dream instant
They say it only takes an instant to have a dream; a dream can be compressed into hardtack.
worry heaven world
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.
women views world
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.
strong hero want
I don't want to be a strong hero who can save society. I just want to save myself.
reality perception instant
Reality is myself, reality is only the perception of this instant and it can't be related to another person.
memories trying filters
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.
adversity problem reason
Everyone has to have either this or that problem, if he can't find any problem, he loses all reason for living.
hero people tragedy
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.
listening needs language
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.
book writing men
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.
writing reality self
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.
truth refuse subservient
Truth refuses to be subservient to either politics or the market.
writing poetry making-love
Everybody can write poetry, just like everybody knows how to make love.