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 XingjianRead
Literature transcends national boundaries, racial boundaries. It goes deep into the issues that concern all human beings. That is why, when people read Greek tragedy - it doesn't matter who reads it - they are still moved by it.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Literature connects humanity beyond differences, evoking shared emotions and concerns.
Gao Xingjian emphasizes the universal nature of literature, suggesting that it transcends cultural and racial barriers to speak to fundamental human experiences. Through works like Greek tragedy, readers from diverse backgrounds find common ground in their emotional responses, highlighting literature's power to unite people through shared themes and feelings.
Themes
LiteratureUniversalityHumanityEmotionConnection
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about the importance of the arts in education, one might say, 'As Gao Xingjian remarked, literature transcends all boundaries, reminding us of our shared humanity.'
More from Gao Xingjian
All quotes →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.
Gao XingjianRead
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 XingjianRead
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 XingjianRead
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.
Gao XingjianRead
Since childhood, I'd dreamed of making a film, but producers in France and Germany wanted to make commercial films with chinoiserie. I refused.
Gao XingjianRead
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It's extraordinary how many people read a book that's new and weird and befriend it.
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When we're done with it, we may find—if it's a good novel—that we're a bit different from what we were before we read it, that we have been changed a little, as if by having meet a new face, crossed a street we've never crossed before.
Ursula K. Le GuinRead