Chinese novelist & playwright (1940- )
Since it was announced that I had been awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, the Chinese Foreign Ministry has condemned my works and criticized them harshly. All of my works are now banned from getting into China or being published in China. What author would want to return to a country that banned his or her books?
GAO XINGJIAN
One Man's Bible
This deep fathomless cavity created by nature was like a huge womb. In this dark natural cavern he was minute, like a single sperm, moreover an infertile sperm, roaming about happy and contented; this was a freedom that exists after release from lust.
GAO XINGJIAN
One Man's Bible
I also was investigating doubts one has about language, suspicions about language and questions of what a novel is and what purpose the novel serves. To me it's not that interesting to simply use language to describe characters or to describe a plot or to describe circumstances. I decided that the actual calling of names, of pronouns, was a subject worthy of investigation in itself; pronouns became the plot. But I also realize that if you're trying to narrate something about pronouns, and that's your plot, you have to do it through language. The minute that you use language, you come to the question of who is speaking and who is narrating. So I realized that this brought me back to the starting point of characterization and plot, and I thought that using pronouns and titles was a way of leading readers into the story.
GAO XINGJIAN
"A Conversation with Gao Xingjian", Asia Society
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
"Cold Literature", The Case for Literature
With the beginning of life, comes the thirst for truth, whereas the ability to lie is gradually acquired in the process of trying to stay alive.
GAO XINGJIAN
"Literature as Testimony: The Search for Truth", Witness Literature: Proceedings of the Nobel Centennial Symposium
Literature is subservient to nothing but truth.
GAO XINGJIAN
"Literature as Testimony: The Search for Truth", Witness Literature: Proceedings of the Nobel Centennial Symposium
Ah, in those revolutionary years even women were revolutionized into lunatics and monsters.
GAO XINGJIAN
One Man's Bible
I decided that I did not want to follow any of these ideologies or trends, because these also exerted a kind of pressure, and obstructed absolute creative freedom.
GAO XINGJIAN
One Man's Bible
Loneliness is a prerequisite for freedom. Freedom depends on the ability to reflect, and reflection can only begin when one is alone.
GAO XINGJIAN
speech presented on receiving the Golden Plate Award at the Forty-first International Achievement Summit of the American Academy of Achievement, Jun. 8, 2002
I don't want to be a strong hero who can save society. I just want to save myself.
GAO XINGJIAN
The Guardian, Aug. 1, 2008
Men always look differently at women, even if it's not your intention it is wrongly interpreted as such.
GAO XINGJIAN
Soul Mountain
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
Soul Mountain
When he closed his eyes his mind began to roam, and only with his eyes closed did he not feel others watching and observing him. With his eyes closed, there was freedom and he could wander.
GAO XINGJIAN
One Man's Bible
When I came overseas, I realized that there are many ideologies and many trends, and it's also very hard to produce honest art and honest literature. I decided that I didn't want to follow any of these ideologies or trends, because that's also a kind of pressure that doesn't allow absolute freedom. So I decided that I was only going to produce works that were satisfactory to me, and that meant not following any trends and being anti-ideological.
GAO XINGJIAN
"A Conversation with Gao Xingjian", Asia Society
There are numerous layers to truth, and the simple and superficial statement of facts cannot satisfy the writer.
GAO XINGJIAN
"Literature as Testimony: The Search for Truth", Witness Literature: Proceedings of the Nobel Centennial Symposium
A good work can be communicated across languages ... [provided one does not] fall into the trap of narrow-minded nationalistic or chauvinistic thinking.
GAO XINGJIAN
"Translation is like rewriting from scratch: Nobel literary laureate Gao Xingjian", The Sunday Times
It was not that he didn't remember he once had another sort of life. But, like the old yellowing photograph at home, which he did not burn, it was sad to think about, and far away, like another world that had disappeared forever.
GAO XINGJIAN
One Man's Bible
On the first level, I think that in the 20th century, the problem of exile or alienation is particularly pronounced for writers and artists. A second level is the more spiritual level, that exile also means overcoming ideology and overcoming attitudes and overcoming trends, and so exile has also been a way of pursuing nothingism or overcoming ideology. A third level is that artists tend to be on the margins of society. So from that perspective, exile is a kind of appropriate mental state, at least for artists. This is a good thing. If you were in the center of society, you'd be receiving input and pressure from too many different areas, and that's not the kind of environment that an artist needs to cultivate his own creativity and his own thoughts.
GAO XINGJIAN
"A Conversation with Gao Xingjian", Asia Society
If, while observing the boundless universe, the writer is able to scrutinize his own self as well as others, the resulting incisiveness of his observations will far surpass objective descriptions of reality.
GAO XINGJIAN
"Literature as Testimony: The Search for Truth", Witness Literature: Proceedings of the Nobel Centennial Symposium
When you're telling a story, you've got to give details.
GAO XINGJIAN
Dialogue and Rebuttal