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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

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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
Writing
Lifetime
Enduring
Works
Selfless
Literature
Affirmation
History
Authors
Write
Published
Self
Continued
Many
Achieved
Great
Endure
Lifetimes

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Life is probably a tangle of love and hate permanently knotted together.
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Reality is myself, reality is only the perception of this instant and it can't be related to another person.
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Walk where your heart leads you, there are no restrictions and no burdens.
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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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Men always look differently at women, even if it's not your intention it is wrongly interpreted as such.
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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.
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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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If you want to do anything, do it now, without compromise or concession, because you have only one life.
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Maybe there isn't a God after all, maybe there's only a universe rotating by itself like a millstone.
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Soul Mountain, the story of one man’s quest for inner peace and freedom.
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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.
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Body odour (known also as scent of the immortals) is a disgusting condition with an awful, nauseating smell.
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Realty exists only through experience, and it must be personal experience.
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Literature is subservient to nothing but truth.
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Observing humans and observing oneself yields a clear-minded starting point for literature.
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I want to write a novel so profound that it would suffocate a fly.
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When God talks to humans he doesn't want humans to hear his voice.
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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.
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I believe in science but I also believe in fate.
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When you're telling a story, you've got to give details.
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