Gao Xingjian Quotes

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.

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.

I believe in science but I also believe in fate.

Only a lunatic would think that art is superior to nature.

Young man, nature is not frightening, it's people who are frightening! You just need to get to know nature and it will become friendly. This creature known as man is of course highly intelligent, he's capable of manufacturing almost anything from rumours to test-tube babies and yet he destroys two to three species every day. This is the absurdity of man.

Reality exists only through experience, and it must be personal experience. However, once related, even personal experience becomes a narrative.

It's in literature that true life can be found. It's under the mask of fiction that you can tell the truth.

Men always look differently at women, even if it's not your intention it is wrongly interpreted as such.

Soul Mountain, the story of one man’s quest for inner peace and freedom.

لا زلت أعتقد أننى أفهم كل شىء. الأشياء تجرى خلفى، هناك دوما عين غريبة تترصدنى، الأفضل هو التظاهر بالفهم. التظاهر بالفهم، فى الحقيقة، إنى لا أفهم شيئاً، لا أفهم شيئاً على الإطلاق، هكذا الأمر، لا أكثر.

Sitting at rest know not to discuss the shortcomings of other people Setting out on a journey fully appreciate the beauty of the dragon river

في الأصل، الإنسان حرٌ كالعصفور، فلم لا يسعى وراء القليل من المتعة؟

You’ve lived in the city for a long time and need to feel that you have a hometown.

الحياة نفسها لا تخضع لاي منطق فلماذا نسعى لاستخلاص معناها على نحو منطقي ؟!

Mucizeler inanmadım hiç, kadere inanmadığım gibi; ama ümitsiz bir durumdaysanız , mucizelerden başka ümit bağlayacağınız ne kalır?

When a man gets to middle age shouldn’t he look for a peaceful and stable existence, find a not-too-demanding sort of a job, stay in a mediocre position, become a husband and a father, set up a comfortable home, put money in the bank and add to it every month so there’ll be something for old age and a little left over for the next generation?

I did not think about what sort of people might read it. In fact, I was writing it for myself.

Another issue was language, the problem of expressing these themes in language and the problem of how much one can articulate in language.

Reading this chapter is optional but as you've read it you've read it.

Tú sabes que no hago nada más que hablarme a mí mismo para distraer mi soledad. Sabes que mi soledad es irremediable, nadie puede consolarme, no puedo recurrir a otro que a mí como interlocutor de mis discusiones. En este largo monólogo, <> es el objeto de mi relato, en realidad es un yo que me escucha atentamente, <> no es más que me propia sombra.

El hombre no puede deshacerse de esta máscara, es la proyección de su carne y de su alma. Se le pega a la piel, jamás podrá liberarse de ella, pero está sumido en un profundo asombro, como si no pudiera creer que se trate de sí mismo. Esta imposibilidad de abandonar la máscara le causaba inmensos sufrimientos. Una vez que se la ha puesto, es imposible arrancársela, porque no tiene voluntad personal, o, si la tiene, no conoce el modo de expresarla y prefiere no mostrarla. La máscara deja así la impresión de un hombre que se contempla eternamente en el más profundo de los asombros.

he was as if a “reborn” human being, a “fundamentalist” as a human being.

Prior to that I had written many works but I was unable to present them for publication, in fact I had burned them all.

ضحايا الظلم هم دائما من النساء

Reality is myself, reality is only the perception of this instant and it can’t be related to another person.

I hadn't planned on climbing mountains. But now that you're in the mountains, be ready to suffer.

Although as an individual Gao had readily denounced the Chinese authorities for the events of 4 June in the French and Italian media, he refused to compromise his integrity as a writer. His stance angered both political sides.

La libertad no es un derecho del hombre que concede el cielo, y la libertad de soñar tampoco se adquiere desde el nacimiento: es una capacidad que hay que preservar, una conciencia, sobre todo porque las pesadillas no paran de perturbarla.

Tuzağa yakalanmış hissediyorum kendimi. Dev bir zıpkınla vurulmuş, korkunun ağları içinde çırpınan bir balık gibiyim; kaderini değiştiremeyeceğini bile bile çırpınan, bir mucize olmadıkça kurtulmayacağını bilen bir balık. Ama ben hayatın boyunca hep bir mucize beklemedim mi?

الطبيعة ليست مخيفة الإنسان هو المخيف يكفي ان تتآلف مع الطبيعة لكي تتآلف معك أما الإنسان فهو قادر إذا حُبيَ بنعمة الذكاء طبعا على اختراع كل شئ بدءاً بالإشاعات وصولاً إلى طفل الأنبوب لكنه في الوقت نفسه يبيد كل يوم نوعين او ثلاثة من الأنواع الحية في هذا العالم تلك هي الخدعة البشرية

At the height of the Cultural Revolution, rather than risk having to face dire consequences for his accumulated writings, he burned several kilos of manuscripts (ten plays, and many short stories, poems, and essays). For him it was an ordeal to part with what he had written. Moreover, it took a long time to burn so much paper without creating smoke and arousing suspicions.

You're light, and float up as if you're weightless. You wander from country to country, city to city, woman to woman, but don't think of finding a place that is home. You drift along, engrossed in savoring the taste of the written language, and, like ejaculating, leave behind some traces of your life. You achieve nothing and no longer concern yourself with things in life and afterlife. As your life was plucked back from death, why should you be concerned? You simply live in this instant, like a leaf in the brink of falling from a tree.

There were no battlefields now, but enemies were everywhere. Defenses were up all over the place, but defense was impossible. He could retreat no further. No longer wildly hoping for anything more, all he wanted was a house in a village, where he could settle down with a wife, but even that possibility was about to vanish. Before dawn, he got the bicycle back to the village. Huang and his wife had waited for him. [...] Before leaving, he waved to them and said that he hadn't been there. They said, of course you haven't, of course you haven't. He had done all he could, the rest was up to fate.

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?

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.

Aslında, neden geldim bu dağlara? Bu bilimsel araştırma merkezlerindeki hayatı yaşayarak deneyim sahibi olmak için mi? Böyle bir deneyimin amacı ne? Eğer karşılaştığım zorluklardan kurtulmak ise, kaçıp kurtulmanın daha kolay yolları vardı. Belki başka bir hayat bulabilmeyi umuyordum? İnsanların dayanılmayacak kadar sıkıcı dünyasından bir an önce uzaklaşmak mı istiyordum? Dünyadan kaçıyorsan, insanlarla iletişim kurmanın ne anlamı var? En büyük sıkıntı, ne aradığımı bilmiyor olmam. Çok fazla düşünce, mantık, çok fazla duygu! Hayatın kendisi hiçbir mantık çerçevesine girmediği halde, neden anlamını mantık yoluyla bulmaya çalışıyoruz? Sanırım çok fazla düşünmekten vazgeçmem gerek,çünkü sıkıntım bundan kaynaklanıyor.

Reality is myself, reality is only the perception of this instant and it can't be related to another person.

النساء مثلهن لايعرفن الحياة الهانئة الا في ما ندر ، لأن الرجال يرغبون في النساء لمتعتهم الخاصة ، والأزواج يرغبون في زوجة تعني بالمنزل والمطبخ ، والمسنون يرغبون في كنة توفر لهم الذرية ، لا أحد يسعي وراء الحب

Te bastará con familiarizarte con la naturaleza y ella se acercará a ti. El hombre, si es inteligente, por supuesto, es capaz de crearlo todo, desde las calumnias hasta los bebés probeta, pero al mismo tiempo extermina a diario dos o tres especies en el mundo. Este es el gran autoengaño de los hombres.

I say it's impossible to understand the world. He says he's talking about this half-bird half-fish creature, not about the world. I say there's no difference between this half-bird half-fish creature and the world.

I come out of the home for the aged, get on my bicycle, and think to myself that even if there is a communal grave it will in future not be of archaeological significance. Nevertheless, I have finally visited my deceased maternal grandmother who once bought me a spinning top.

It is clear that life naturally ends, and when the end comes, fear vanishes, because fear is itself a manifestation of life. On losing awareness and consciousness, life abruptly ends, and there can be no further thinking and no further meaning.

For you, only life is of value, you have a lingering attachment to it, it continues to be interesting because there are still things to discover and amaze you. It is only life that can excite you. That is just how it is with you, isn't it?

At that time the individual did not exist. There was not an awareness of a distinction between “I” and “you”. The birth of I derived from fear of death, and only afterwards an entity which was not I came to constitute you. At that time people did not have an awareness of fearing oneself, knowledge of the self came from an other and was affirmed by possessing and being possessed, and by conquering and being conquered. He, the third person who is not directly relevant to I and you, was gradually differentiated. After this the I also discovered that he was to be found in large numbers everywhere and was a separate existence from oneself, and it was only then that the consciousness of you and I became secondary. In the individual’s struggle for survival amongst others, the self was gradually forgotten and gradually churned like a grain of sand into the chaos of the boundless universe.

Reading this chapter is optional but as you’ve read it you’ve read it.

Yours is much worse than Eastern! You’ve slapped together travel notes, moralistic ramblings, feelings, notes, jottings, untheoretical discussions, unfable-like fables, copied out some folk songs, added some legend-like nonsense of your own invention, and are calling it fiction!

La diferencia entre la novela y la filosofía nace de que la novela es una producción de sensibilidad, sumerge en una mezcla de deseos los códigos de los signos arbitrariamente construidos, y, en el momento en el que este sistema se disuelve y se transforma en células, aparece la vida. Entonces se asiste a la gestación y al nacimiento, lo cual es aún más interesante que los juegos del espíritu, pero, al igual que la vida, no responde a ninguna finalidad.

En esta época no existía el individuo, no se distinguía el «yo» del «tú». El «yo apareció muy al comienzo a causa del miedo a la muerte; lo ajeno al «yo» se transformó en lo que se denomina el «tú». El hombre era entonces incapaz aún de temerse a sí mismo, su conocimiento de sí mismo no provenía más que del otro. Sólo el hecho de apresar o de ser apresado, de estar sometido o de someter, le confirmaba en su existencia. La tercera persona que no tiene relación directa con el «yo» y el «tú» es «él». Y «él» no aparece sino de forma paulatina. Más tarde, he descubierto que ocurre otro tanto con «él»: fue la existencia de seres diferentes la que hizo retroceder la conciencia del «yo» y del «tú». El hombre ha ido olvidado paulatinamente su «yo» en la lucha por la vida con el prójimo y, sumergido forzosamente en el mundo infinito, ya no es más que un granito de arena.

La verdad de la vida, es decir, la naturaleza de la vida, debe ser tal como es y no de otro modo. Si me he apartado de la verdad es porque no he expuesto mas que una serie de fenómenos de la vida que no pueden, claro está, reflejarla como es debido. El resultado es que no he hecho más que seguir un camino equivocado deformando la realidad.

Si uno se pone a pensar sobre ello, la meta última de la vida humana es algo que carece de importancia, es como un enjambre de abejas. Si uno lo deja estar acabada lamentándolo, pero si lo coges los insectos te picarán, por lo que es preferible dejarlo estar y observarlo sin tocarlo.

Sự thật không thể vui tai, vừa lòng, sự thật ít nhiều vẫn buộc phải có phần gay gắt, nếu không thế thì sao mà nhìn được thẳng vào vận mệnh của bản thân cơ chứ!

This creature known as man is of course highly intelligent, he’s capable of manufacturing almost anything from rumours to test-tube babies and yet he destroys two to three species every day. This is the absurdity of man.

Thus Buddha told the boddhisatva: the myriad phenomena are vanity, the absence of phenomena is also vanity.

The young men are even less inhibited and come right up to the women to choose the one they like best, as if they are choosing a piece of fruit. At this point the women move their handkerchiefs and fans, and the more they are examined the more feeling they put into their singing. When a conversation starts, the young man takes the woman’s hand and they walk off together. The marketplace with its stalls thronging with ten thousand heads during the daytime is now a vast singing stadium. I am suddenly surrounded by an expanse of passions and think that the human search for love must originally have been like this. So-called civilization in later ages separated sexual impulse from love and created the concepts of status, wealth, religion, ethics and cultural responsibility. Such is the stupidity of human beings.

這種內心的自由，無牽無掛，如雲如風。這自由也不是上帝賜予的，要付出多大代價，又多麼珍貴，只有他自己知道。

自由並非天賦的人權，而夢想的自由也不是生來就有，也是需要維護的一種能力，一種意識，況且也還受到噩夢的干擾。

The story can also serve as a philosophy for getting on in society – to teach the morally superior man that each day he should investigate his own personal conduct, or that human life is suffering, or that suffering in life derives from the self. Or the story could be developed into numerous intricate and complex theories. It all depends on how the storyteller tells it.

Life is not the same as manifestations of life. Real life, or in other words the basic substance of life, should be the former and not the latter. I had gone against real life because I was simply stringing together life’s manifestations, so of course I wasn’t able to accurately portray life and in the end only succeeded in distorting reality.

你後悔你沒同她約定再見，你後悔你沒有跟蹤她，你後悔你沒有勇氣，沒有去糾纏住她，沒有那種浪漫的激情，沒有妄想，也就不會有豔遇。總之，你後悔你的失誤，你難得失眠，但你竟然一夜沒有睡好。早起，你又覺得荒唐，幸虧沒有莽撞。那種唐突有損你的自尊，可你又討厭你過於清醒。你都不會去愛，軟弱得失去了男子的氣概，你已經失去了行動的能力。

你這自我，也同樣是無中生有，說有便有，說沒有就渾然一團，你努力去塑造的那個自我真有這麼獨特？或者說你有自我嗎？你在無限的因果中折騰，可那些因果何在？因果如同煩惱，同樣是你塑造出來的，你也就不必再去塑造那個自我了，更不必再無中生有去找尋所謂對自我的認同，不如回到生命的本源，這活潑的當下。永恆的只有這當下，你感受你才存在，否則便渾然無知，就活在當下，感受這深秋柔和的陽光吧！

Dreams are more real than reality itself, they're closer to the self.

自由短暫即逝，你的眼神，你那語調的那一瞬間，都來自內心的一種態度，你要捕捉的就是這瞬間即逝的自由。所以訴諸語言，恰恰是要把這自由加以確認，哪怕寫下的文字不可能永存。可你書寫時，這自由你便看見了，聽到了，在你寫、你讀、你聽的此時此刻，自由便存在於你表述之中，就要這麼點奢侈，對自由的表述和表述的自由，得到了你就坦然。

世上有那麼多書還鋪天蓋地在出，多一本少一本並不重要，何況你又不靠賣書謀生，也只有不以此謀生還寫，這書之於你才必不可少。

La culture n’est pas un luxe, c’est une nécessité