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
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.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Writing becomes essential for personal survival in a hostile environment where trust is absent.
Gao Xingjian expresses that in a toxic atmosphere, where betrayal can come from even those closest to us, the act of writing serves as a vital means of self-preservation. His words reflect a profound struggle for individuality and expression amid pervasive distrust and jeopardy, highlighting how art can be both a refuge and a necessity for emotional survival.
Themes
WritingSurvivalTrustFamilyBetrayalArt
In practice
Example use cases
When discussing the importance of creative expression in times of adversity.
More from Gao Xingjian
All quotes βI 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
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
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.
Gao XingjianRead
Similar quotes
You can't have it all one way - be on the telly and the radio and make lots of money - and not offer anything to your followers when they need you.
Vera LynnRead
Acting, I found, was the biggest charge I ever had. What other artist has it so good? Approval so quick?
Elia KazanRead
Punk is not dead. Punk will only die when corporations can exploit and mass produce it.
Jello BiafraRead
Poems are rough notations for the music we are.
RumiRead
I had never before thought of how awful the relationship must be between the musician and his instrument. He has to fill it, this instrument, with the breath of life, his own. He has to make it do what he wants it to do. And a piano is just a piano. It's made out of so much wood and wires and little hammers and big ones, and ivory. While there's only so much you can do with it, the only way to find this out is to try; to try and make it do everything.
James A. BaldwinRead
Sometimes I wish I could walk up to my music for the first time, as if I had never heard it before.
John ColtraneRead