Quote

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

Gao Xingjian

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

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
Profound
Novel
Write
Writing
Would
Suffocate

More quotes by Gao Xingjian

Image
If you want to do anything, do it now, without compromise or concession, because you have only one life.
Gao Xingjian
Image
Soul Mountain, the story of one man’s quest for inner peace and freedom.
Gao Xingjian
Image
Life is fragile, yet to obstinately struggle is natural.
Gao Xingjian
Image
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
Image
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.
Gao Xingjian
Image
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.
Gao Xingjian
Image
When you're telling a story, you've got to give details.
Gao Xingjian
Image
Observing humans and observing oneself yields a clear-minded starting point for literature.
Gao Xingjian
Image
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.
Gao Xingjian
Image
When God talks to humans he doesn't want humans to hear his voice.
Gao Xingjian
Image
I don't want to be a strong hero who can save society. I just want to save myself.
Gao Xingjian
Image
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
Image
Walk where your heart leads you, there are no restrictions and no burdens.
Gao Xingjian
Image
There are numerous layers to truth, and the simple and superficial statement of facts cannot satisfy the writer.
Gao Xingjian
Image
Realty exists only through experience, and it must be personal experience.
Gao Xingjian
Image
Reality is myself, reality is only the perception of this instant and it can't be related to another person.
Gao Xingjian
Image
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.
Gao Xingjian
Image
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
Image
Only a lunatic would think that art is superior to nature.
Gao Xingjian
Image
Everybody can write poetry, just like everybody knows how to make love.
Gao Xingjian