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.”
― Xingjian Gao, Soul Mountain

“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

“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.”
― Gao Xingjian, Soul Mountain

“I believe in science but I also believe in fate.”
― Gao Xingjian, Soul Mountain

“Only a lunatic would think that art is superior to nature.”
― Gao Xingjian, Soul Mountain

“Reality exists only through experience, and it must be personal experience. However, once related, even personal experience becomes a narrative.”
― Gao Xingjian, Soul Mountain

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

“Men always look differently at women, even if it's not your intention it is wrongly interpreted as such.”
― Gao Xingjian, Soul Mountain

“Soul Mountain, the story of one man’s quest for inner peace and freedom.”
― Gao Xingjian, Soul Mountain

“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.”
― Gao Xingjian, Soul Mountain

“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?”
― Gao Xingjian, Soul Mountain

“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”
― Gao Xingjian, Soul Mountain

“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.”
― Gao Xingjian, Soul Mountain

“You’ve lived in the city for a long time and need to feel that you have a hometown.”
― Gao Xingjian, Soul Mountain

“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.”
― Gao Xingjian, Soul Mountain

“الحياة نفسها لا تخضع لاي منطق فلماذا نسعى لاستخلاص معناها على نحو منطقي ؟!”
― Gao Xingjian Soul Mountain

“في الأصل، الإنسان حرٌ كالعصفور، فلم لا يسعى وراء القليل من المتعة؟”
― Gao Xingjian Soul Mountain

“Mucizeler inanmadım hiç, kadere inanmadığım gibi; ama ümitsiz bir durumdaysanız , mucizelerden başka ümit bağlayacağınız ne kalır?”
― Gao Xingjian, Soul Mountain

“Reading this chapter is optional but as you've read it you've read it.”
― Gao Xingjian, Soul Mountain

“I hadn't planned on climbing mountains.
But now that you're in the mountains, be ready to suffer.”
― Gao Xingjian, Soul Mountain

“I did not think about what sort of people might read it. In fact, I was writing it for myself.”
― Gao Xingjian, One Man's Bible: A Novel

“Another issue was language, the problem of expressing these themes in language and the problem of how much one can articulate in language.”
― Gao Xingjian, One Man's Bible: A Novel

“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”
― Gao Xingjian Soul Mountain

“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?”
― Gao Xingjian, Soul Mountain

“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.”
― Gao Xingjian, One Man's Bible: A Novel

“he was as if a “reborn” human being, a “fundamentalist” as a human being.”
― Gao Xingjian, One Man's Bible: A Novel

“Reality is myself, reality is only the perception of this instant and it can’t be related to another person.”
― Gao Xingjian, Soul Mountain

“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.”
― Gao Xingjian, One Man's Bible

“ضحايا الظلم هم دائما من النساء”
― Gao Xingjian, Soul Mountain

“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.”
― Gao Xingjian, One Man's Bible