Quotes from Gao Xingjian

When God talks to humans he doesn't want humans to hear his voice.

The sand murmurs that it wants to swallow everything.

If you're not perfectly conscious of yourself, that self can be tyrannical; in relationship to others, anyone can become a tyrant. That's why no one can be a Superman. You have to go beyond yourself with a 'third eye' - self-awareness - because the one thing you cannot flee is yourself.

When I completed writing 'Soul Mountain,' I more or less closed the accounts with China for myself. I was 50 years old when I left, so China is already within me.

I was born Chinese, and I write in Chinese. I don't think there's any need to evade this... to a writer, as to a person, what matters is not his political label or his nationality, but whether he is a person and whether his work is worth looking at.

A good man never fights with a woman.

As a male writer, women are always what men pursue, and their world is always a mystery. So I always tried to present as many views as possible on women's worlds.

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

Experience has taught me that any kind of political grouping is oppressive. It's the blind mass that crushes the individual.

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

Various political parties, even if they're in direct opposition with one another, still say they are the spokesperson for the people. The writer must speak his own words and not get mixed up with politics.

When you use words, you're able to keep your mind alive. Writing is my way of reaffirming my own existence.

Loneliness is a prerequisite for freedom. Freedom depends on the ability to reflect, and reflection can only begin when one is alone.