If you want to do anything, do it now, without compromise or concession, because you have only one life.

- Gao Xingjian

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

Love is so holy, so confusing. It makes a man anxious, tormented. Love, how can I define it?

- Gao Xingjian

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

- Gao Xingjian

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.

- Gao Xingjian

I don't want to be a strong hero who can save society. I just want to save myself.

- Gao Xingjian

Observing humans and observing oneself yields a clear-minded starting point for literature.

- Gao Xingjian

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

- Gao Xingjian

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