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 Xingjian
Related That's why I loved being with you. We could do the simplest things, like toss starfish into the ocea... NICHOLAS SPARKS In my family, there was one cardinal priority - education. College was not an option; it was mandato... EVA LONGORIA When I was growing up, there was nobody in my family - not even my mother - who I could look to and ... FRANK OCEAN I could describe my career in two words: who knew. I was on the path to becoming a professional base... SHEMAR MOORE It was just music all day... My neighbors were musicians, and my brother and my family and everybody... TROMBONE SHORTY People tend to fear the ghosts in their own family. You feel these family curses and think, 'If ... CHRISTIAN LOUBOUTIN The day you will provide a family with groceries might be the beginning of a new life for that famil... DOUGLAS YEBOAH A rumor that followed me forever was that my family was in the mafia. For years I had to live with i... GIULIANA RANCIC At a very young age, I could look at people and tell that everyone was, in a sense, worthless in the... VINCE STAPLES What I wanted to do was to earn enough money to pay for my mother's house. When my mother passed... DOROTHEA BENTON FRANK And partly, the worst thing you could do in my family was need something from someone. So physical s... ALISON BECHDEL You use your own money. I did have a few people who gave me money for the campaign, but I never aske... FRANK MCCARTNEY What helped me was I had people around me to remind me to help my country even when it did me wrong,... ALEXIS ARGUELLO I could describe my career in two words: who knew. I was on the path to becoming a professional base... SHEMAR MOORE My family's dream, and my own, was to live in Israel, and our eventual voyage to the port of Jaf... SHIMON PERES But I think we both knew, even then, that what we had was something even more rare, and even more me... DAVID LEVITHAN Nobody in my family was musical. I had no idea you could be a songwriter and make a living at it. It... VALERIE SIMPSON I come personally from a broken family, divorced very early in my childhood, a family with its own s... BILL DE BLASIO From a very young age, I suspected there was more to my world than I could see: somewhere in the str... ORHAN PAMUK My own aunt was Merle Oberon, so movie stardom was not a faraway mystery to me as a child: it was pa... MICHAEL KORDA You are the best, most loving, supportive family anyone could ever have," I said through my sobs. "I... JASPER FFORDE My father had a brilliant scholastic record in high school and was awarded a college scholarship. Un... TONY VISCONTI My family was very supportive of my acting. They didn't really have a choice because I got jobs ... AJAY NAIDU I'm thankful to God for having a family that's been there for me. He's been there from t... ASHTON SHEPHERD My family was near here, so I could see them and brew at the same time. You can?t beat that. CHRIS MILUM If you asked me which gives me more joy, my work or my family, there is no question that it's my... EMILY OSTER I could have lived off all the male careers in my family. Everybody was always getting ovations, but... TALIA SHIRE In Brooklyn, it was as though you were in your own little bubble. You were all part of one big, but ... DON DRYSDALE My sister was a good and upstanding person who was always there for anyone in our family. GREG LUTZ Though I technically come from a film family, my father had stopped making films even before my brot... RANI MUKERJI It was nice. Even in high school, I’d mostly had makeshift friends forged by the shared status of ... J.M. RICHARDS You see other people with their families after the games, and you wish you could have that. So I tur... CAMILLE MOUTE We were what you would call a poor family, but we were rich in so many things. We did family things ... AUGUST WILSON I was born in Cincinnati, Ohio. My family was not nationally known as being a literary family, thoug... KENNETH KOCH For two years, Eric has had to face his family, his friends with the unspoken question - How could y... JOE CONTI It was my first time playing in front of my friends and family, so I was very nervous. I didn't know... LAUREN HARRIS So why hadn’t he confronted me? Why hadn’t he torn through my lies and forced me to own up that ... SAM DOGRA Someone today asked me a wild question!
Whom should one love ideally?
My answer was even wilder!
Fir... DR. VINOD B. NAIR Since my brother died in 1982, my parents and I had formed a shaky tripod of a family; now that I... ANN HOOD Everyone in my family pretty much has gone here so it seemed like the only option. I think (Lott) al... JENNIFER HOWARD What happens in the context of war is that, in order for you to make a child into a killer, you dest... ISHMAEL BEAH My family said that I wanted to act even when I was a child living on a tea plantation in the jungle... JULIE CHRISTIE I've always been a freak and different, oddball even in my childhood and my own family, so I can rel... DOLLY PARTON I came to cinema for money. I had to settle a loan of Rs 10 lakh. I had no other go, so I thought I&... VIJAY SETHUPATHI My family believed I could do no wrong. That's probably why I have utter confidence in myself ev... EILEEN FORD He's always sort of felt like family to me in some respects. I know exactly what he's trying to conv... BRUCE PALTROW There was a lack of traveling, but the people who were traveling were in family groups. There was a ... CRAIG DAVID Trust, once lost, could not be easily found. Not in a year, perhaps not even in a lifetime. J.E.B. SPREDEMANN My father was brought up in an orphanage in the Catskills. He was a factory worker. And because his ... HARVEY FIERSTEIN I never even was in any of my high school plays. I mean, look at me. What role could they give me - ... JOHN MATUSZAK But you think that it is time for me to have done with the world, and so I would if I could get into... JONATHAN SWIFT I'm a believer in that, ... I am a great believer in found families and I'm not a great believer in ... JOSS WHEDON He went because he was very, very patriotic. I guess you could say it ran in the family. DOROTHY MILLER In my twenties, it was so important for me to show people I had all these other books and these othe... EVELYN LAU Robert Herring had enough trust in me to think I could carry my own show. TOMI LAHREN What is family? They were the people who claimed you. In good, in bad, in parts or in whole, they we... SARAH DESSEN At the time I was writing the second album, I was sitting home in my underwear all day every day; I ... MAC DEMARCO It used to bug me that I couldn't even afford to take my family for a proper holiday. I didn'... BOMAN IRANI When I became a novice monk, I lived in a temple where the atmosphere was quite like in a family. Th... NHAT HANH For many people, the family is portrayed as the settled place of reasonable safety, but as anyone wh... ARUNDHATI ROY Writing songs out of my faith was a real natural progression. I grew up singing in my dad's choi... STEVEN CURTIS CHAPMAN Most people believe that sharing the same flesh and blood, the same basic DNA structure, makes them ... ROBIN SACREDFIRE Thankfully, I was able to go to Marquette University and get my education, a Catholic education, so ... DANNY PUDI The delightful sense of importance that had been mine as a child actress was taken out of me. It see... MAUDE ADAMS It was better for me when I could imagine greatness in others, even if it wasn't always there. CHARLES BUKOWSKI Ian didn't come. He just sat here with you--he said he didn't care what you looked like. He wouldn't... STEPHENIE MEYER Two parts of me have been at war. Your... odd family, your financial troubles- your in a different w... BERNIE SU I was on Oprah's show recently talking about the people who impacted me the most. One was a teac... ANDREW SHUE I wrote about a bird that cleaned a crocodile's teeth. The story was so good that my teacher cou... BRIAN JACQUES I see myself as having three families: my birth family, the family that raised me, and my Cree famil... BUFFY SAINTE-MARIE I was writing my Ph.D. in the late 1980s and was keeping an eye on what was happening in the world. ... BIDZINA IVANISHVILI A girl child who is even a little bit educated is more conscious of family planning, health care and... AZIM PREMJI It was a very hard life. As I got older, the family was depending very much on me. My two older brot... MARTIN LEL I could forgive you even your cruelty if it were not for your calm. G.K. CHESTERTON My childhood was protected by love and a comfortable home. Yet, while still a very young child, I be... EMMELINE PANKHURST I was born into the most remarkable and eccentric family I could possibly have hoped for. MAUREEN O'HARA Three women in my family, close relatives, have had breast cancer, and two have died from it, and st... JAMEELA JAMIL I wish I could tell you me and my rock band were traveling around, strung out. No, we were a family ... BRUNO MARS Even the beauty of the landscape was an abstraction, like the beauty of a man in an advertisement fo... GARTH RISK HALLBERG I was actually in the house and heard the train brakes. You just get a knot in your throat knowing s... ROBERT RAMOS I was raised in a large family. The first reason for my travel was to get away from my family. I kne... PAUL THEROUX I was No. 6 in the pecking order and was constantly being scolded, so I got fed up and resigned. My ... VINCENT LO When I was just a twenty-something, I came to Newark, and I found a connection to the city in a spir... CORY BOOKER His every syllable flirted. Honestly, he kind of turned me on. I didn't even know that guys could tu... JOHN GREEN Trust me, I play the game for the fans, my family and myself. DAVID ORTIZ My family is like a sanctuary to me. I always turn to them for support and strength. I take comfort ... BENJAMIN BRATT Sometimes u can't trust your self are your own family & friends...So bury the money with your eyes c... FLAMESTARTA Even if I was in prison, I could be free in my head. I can adapt easily. AZZEDINE ALAIA People can be cruel,' he says with a sympathetic look that makes me trust him even more. And right t... MATTHEW QUICK It was just terrifying … even the fact that they knew I was involved in Celtic (football club), th... CHRIS WARD It was nice for me to go where some of my family had so much success, and to have so much family her... LANCE NIEKRO My earnestness at the injustices I witnessed when I was writing 'Random Family' may have bee... ADRIAN NICOLE LEBLANC I come from a family of teasers myself. My grandfather was from Liverpool, and he had a dry sense of... JEFF BRIDGES When I was growing up in Monrovia, the capital of Liberia, I sold doughnuts, popcorn and Kool Aid ev... GEORGE WEAH Even my aunt Joan, hopelessly sentimental about every member of our family, admitted that I was hide... SISTER PARISH It was a leap of faith for me. I decided to leave my job and find out how I could become more involv... GLADYS POZZA The best thing that could happen to me right now, is if I could see my family. JULIO BASCALLO Hypocrisy is when you stop believing that anyone could be righteous. Does a doctor stop curing peopl... JOHN B. BEJO I started messing around with the family 8mm camera or a borrowed VHS camera so I could make my own ... RICHARD KING Cancer affects so many people, and even if it hasn't affected someone in your family then you kn... MOLLIE KING
More Gao Xingjian
In the history of literature there are many great enduring works which were not published in the lif... GAO XINGJIAN Observing humans and observing oneself yields a clear-minded starting point for literature. GAO XINGJIAN I don't want to be a strong hero who can save society. I just want to save myself. GAO XINGJIAN When you use words, you're able to keep your mind alive. Writing is my way of reaffirming my own... GAO XINGJIAN Experience has taught me that any kind of political grouping is oppressive. It's the blind mass ... GAO XINGJIAN As a male writer, women are always what men pursue, and their world is always a mystery. So I always... GAO XINGJIAN If you want to do anything, do it now, without compromise or concession, because you have only one l... GAO XINGJIAN It's in literature that true life can be found. It's under the mask of fiction that you can ... GAO XINGJIAN Love is so holy, so confusing. It makes a man anxious, tormented. Love, how can I define it? GAO XINGJIAN In the history of literature there are many great enduring works which were not published in the lif... GAO XINGJIAN Writing eases my suffering... writing is my way of reaffirming my own existence. GAO XINGJIAN In the grand tradition, both Chinese and Western painting have a close link with literature, GAO XINGJIAN When you use words, you're able to keep your mind alive. Writing is my way of reaffirming my own exi... GAO XINGJIAN As a male writer, women are always what men pursue, and their world is always a mystery. So I always... GAO XINGJIAN I like a lot of food. I like Taiwanese food, of course. I like baguettes, especially the ones that m... GODFREY GAO After I grew some facial hair, I looked a bit older, and I guess that's what the modeling world ... GODFREY GAO My childhood dream was to play basketball, actually. GODFREY GAO I told myself again and again that feeling tense of the game could only do bad to my match and I nev... 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GAO FENG Every year during the next five years, we will introduce over 100 planes which means we will need ov... GAO FENG It is difficult to have high profitability in an industry where the investment is so big. GAO FENG Fake drugs is a business that is equivalent to murder. GAO FENG It's not a big problem. GAO FENG Everyone is equal before the law. No matter whether he is American, Chinese or from other countries,... GAO FENG I believe this is not the end but the beginning. GAO FENG China will purchase more than 100 aircraft each year in the 11th Five-Year Plan period (2006-10). GAO HONGFENG The airline business is not a very profitable one because the capital cost needed is huge. GAO HONGFENG Every year in the next five years, the country will add more than 100 planes, meaning we will need m... GAO HONGFENG We have felt that we are walking on thin ice in safety management. 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