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

More quotes by 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.
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I believe in science but I also believe in fate.
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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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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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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.
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Observing humans and observing oneself yields a clear-minded starting point for literature.
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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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Everyone has to have either this or that problem, if he can't find any problem, he loses all reason for living.
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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.
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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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Body odour (known also as scent of the immortals) is a disgusting condition with an awful, nauseating smell.
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Soul Mountain, the story of one man’s quest for inner peace and freedom.
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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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Only a lunatic would think that art is superior to nature.
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Realty exists only through experience, and it must be personal experience.
Gao Xingjian
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Literature is subservient to nothing but truth.
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I don't want to be a strong hero who can save society. I just want to save myself.
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When you're telling a story, you've got to give details.
Gao Xingjian
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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.
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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