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
fall thinking doe
A good work can be communicated across languages ... [provided one does not] fall into the trap of narrow-minded nationalistic or chauvinistic thinking.
lying writing quality
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.
true-life literature fiction
It's in literature that true life can be found. It's under the mask of fiction that you can tell the truth.
war moving civilization
The human species does not necessarily move in stages from progress to progress ... history and civilization do not advance in tandem. From the stagnation of Medieval Europe to the decline and chaos in recent times on the mainland of Asia and to the catastrophes of two world wars in the twentieth century, the methods of killing people became increasingly sophisticated. Scientific and technological progress certainly does not imply that humankind as a result becomes more civilized.
yield literature starting
Observing humans and observing oneself yields a clear-minded starting point for literature.
heart burden restriction
Walk where your heart leads you, there are no restrictions and no burdens.
want compromise ifs
If you want to do anything, do it now, without compromise or concession, because you have only one life.
writing suffering ease
Writing eases my suffering . . . writing is my way of reaffirming my own existence.
dream real self
Dreams are more real than reality itself, they're closer to the self.