Gao Xingjian Quotes

Don't try to write to the trend of the moment.

I never think about what others are doing. I do a film for myself, not others.

The minute you succumb to outside pressure, you cease to be creative.

The creative individual has the capacity to free himself from the web of social pressures in which the rest of us are caught. He is capable of questioning the assumptions that the rest of us accept.

Unless you hit your television with a sledgehammer, you're not going to be able to be an individual.

I think this, I think basically I'm not interested in people following my work or making work like my work.

As far as things I avoid, I always avoid following trends just because they're trends.

I think we're quite unique in that we do have our own sound and approach and we don't really care what's going on elsewhere... we've never wanted to be part of another trend or movement.

I don't feel pressure to act like other people or rap like other people, because I just can't.

I want to stay away from trends and do what we want to do musically.

We don't follow trends; I don't think we even set trends. We just do our own thing. We just do what we love. That's why Arch Enemy sounds like that.

I've never conformed to what my record label has said and, yes, that has meant that it's been a long journey for me.

You should do the sound that you want and not what others want.

Why not do something strange and different for once? Artists can do whatever they want!

I'm not committed as a writer, in the usual sense of the term, either religiously or politically. And I'm not conscious of any particular social function. I write because I want to write. I don't see any placards on myself, and I don't carry any banners.

I hate good taste. It's the worst thing that can happen to a creative person.

My greatest accomplishment is the freedom for doing what I want to do with my music...I love my freedom so I'm happy I am a free artist.

There's such a freedom about being an artist... You're not accountable - you're this renegade thing.

I don't chase what everyone else is looking for. Being creative is all about you.

I take no notice of the trends. It has never concerned me at all. My job is to deal with what I want to deal with and reach an audience by doing so.

A writer must refuse to allow himself to be transformed into an institution.

Good or bad, the one thing I can say about my art is, if I can quote Sinatra, I did it my way.

If you're creating anything at all, it's really dangerous to care about what people think.

The American people ... have a stake in con-conformity, for they know that the American genius is non-conformist.

Life is a difficult game. You can win it only by retaining your birthright to be a person. And to retain this right, you will have to be willing to take the social or external risks involved in ignoring pressures to do things the way others say they should be done