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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

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Gao Xingjian
Age: 84
Born: 1940
Born: January 4
Film Director
Literary Critic
Novelist
Painter
Playwright
Translator
Writer
Xingjian Gao
Hành Kiện Cao
Hsing-chien Kao
Turn
Anyone
Turns
Family
Poisoned
Writing
Atmosphere
Even
Survival
People
Trust
Question

More quotes by Gao Xingjian

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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.
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There are numerous layers to truth, and the simple and superficial statement of facts cannot satisfy the writer.
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I want to write a novel so profound that it would suffocate a fly.
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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.
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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
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Life is probably a tangle of love and hate permanently knotted together.
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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.
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They say it only takes an instant to have a dream a dream can be compressed into hardtack.
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It's in literature that true life can be found. It's under the mask of fiction that you can tell the truth.
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I don't want to be a strong hero who can save society. I just want to save myself.
Gao Xingjian
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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
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Realty exists only through experience, and it must be personal experience.
Gao Xingjian
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Life is fragile, yet to obstinately struggle is natural.
Gao Xingjian
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Body odour (known also as scent of the immortals) is a disgusting condition with an awful, nauseating smell.
Gao Xingjian
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Observing humans and observing oneself yields a clear-minded starting point for literature.
Gao Xingjian
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Only a lunatic would think that art is superior to nature.
Gao Xingjian
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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
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Men always look differently at women, even if it's not your intention it is wrongly interpreted as such.
Gao Xingjian
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Everybody can write poetry, just like everybody knows how to make love.
Gao Xingjian
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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