Gao Xingjian Quotes about Writing

Writing eases my suffering . . . writing is my way of reaffirming my own existence.

Writing eases my suffering . . . writing is my way of reaffirming my own existence.

Writing, Suffering, Ease

Everybody can write poetry, just like everybody knows how to make love.

Writing, Poetry, Making Love

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

Writing, Self, Literature

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

Lying, Writing, Quality

If, while observing the boundless universe, the writer is able to scrutinise his own self as well as others, the resulting incisiveness of his observations will far surpass objective descriptions of reality.

Gao Xingjian

Writing, Reality, Self

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.

Gao Xingjian

Writing, People, Atmosphere

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.

Gao Xingjian

Book, Writing, Men