One Man's Bible Quotes

“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

“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

“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

“Although as an individual Gao had readily denounced the Chinese authorities for the events of 4 June in the French and Italian media, he refused to compromise his integrity as a writer. His stance angered both political sides.”
― 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

“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

“Prior to that I had written many works but I was unable to present them for publication, in fact I had burned them all.”
― Gao Xingjian, One Man's Bible: A Novel

“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

“你這自我，也同樣是無中生有，說有便有，說沒有就渾然一團，你努力去塑造的那個自我真有這麼獨特？或者說你有自我嗎？你在無限的因果中折騰，可那些因果何在？因果如同煩惱，同樣是你塑造出來的，你也就不必再去塑造那個自我了，更不必再無中生有去找尋所謂對自我的認同，不如回到生命的本源，這活潑的當下。永恆的只有這當下，你感受你才存在，否則便渾然無知，就活在當下，感受這深秋柔和的陽光吧！”
― Gao Xingjian, 一個人的聖經

“世上有那麼多書還鋪天蓋地在出，多一本少一本並不重要，何況你又不靠賣書謀生，也只有不以此謀生還寫，這書之於你才必不可少。”
― Gao Xingjian, 一個人的聖經

“自由短暫即逝，你的眼神，你那語調的那一瞬間，都來自內心的一種態度，你要捕捉的就是這瞬間即逝的自由。所以訴諸語言，恰恰是要把這自由加以確認，哪怕寫下的文字不可能永存。可你書寫時，這自由你便看見了，聽到了，在你寫、你讀、你聽的此時此刻，自由便存在於你表述之中，就要這麼點奢侈，對自由的表述和表述的自由，得到了你就坦然。”
― Gao Xingjian, 一個人的聖經

“自由並非天賦的人權，而夢想的自由也不是生來就有，也是需要維護的一種能力，一種意識，況且也還受到噩夢的干擾。”
― Gao Xingjian, 一個人的聖經

“這種內心的自由，無牽無掛，如雲如風。這自由也不是上帝賜予的，要付出多大代價，又多麼珍貴，只有他自己知道。”
― Gao Xingjian, 一個人的聖經

“For you, only life is of value, you have a lingering attachment to it, it continues to be interesting because there are still things to discover and amaze you. It is only life that can excite you. That is just how it is with you, isn't it?”
― Gao Xingjian, One Man's Bible

“It is clear that life naturally ends, and when the end comes, fear vanishes, because fear is itself a manifestation of life. On losing awareness and consciousness, life abruptly ends, and there can be no further thinking and no further meaning.”
― Gao Xingjian, One Man's Bible

“You're light, and float up as if you're weightless. You wander from country to country, city to city, woman to woman, but don't think of finding a place that is home. You drift along, engrossed in savoring the taste of the written language, and, like ejaculating, leave behind some traces of your life. You achieve nothing and no longer concern yourself with things in life and afterlife. As your life was plucked back from death, why should you be concerned? You simply live in this instant, like a leaf in the brink of falling from a tree.”
― Gao Xingjian, One Man's Bible

“Since it was announced that I had been awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, the Chinese Foreign Ministry has condemned my works and criticized them harshly. All of my works are now banned from getting into China or being published in China. What author would want to return to a country that banned his or her books?”
― Gao Xingjian, One Man's Bible: A Novel

“I decided that I did not want to follow any of these ideologies or trends, because these also exerted a kind of pressure, and obstructed absolute creative freedom.”
― Gao Xingjian, One Man's Bible: A Novel