Mo Yan Quotations

When I write, I try to represent the ordinary person in the pew, which means that, ironically, I'm qualified to write about prayer by being unqualified!

Where there's life, death is inevitable. Dying's easy; it's living that's hard. The harder it gets, the stronger the will to live. And the greater the fear of death, the greater the struggle to keep on living.

I'll continue on the path I've been taking, feet on the ground, describing people's lives, describing people's emotions, writing from the standpoint of the ordinary people.

I heard so many stories from Gaomi's peasants that I had an irrepressible urge to write them down. Today, Gaomi's peasants know that they have become famous around the world through my writings, but I think they are a little puzzled by this.

A writer should express criticism and indignation at the dark side of society and the ugliness of human nature, but we should not use one uniform expression.

When someone forces me to do something I don't do it.

People who are strangers to liquor are incapable of talking about literature.

I think that China has many outstanding authors, and their great works should also be recognised by the world.

I have always been independent.

A sudden cloud formation of birds was swallowed up by the moon, and he was just as suddenly penned in by four walls-the demons' pen.

A writer writes what he knows, in ways that are natural to him.

I write about my region, the countryside in which I grew up.

Loneliness and hunger were my fortunes of creation.

No person writes to win awards.

One of the biggest problems in literature is the lack of subtlety.

When literature exists, perhaps we do not notice how important it is, but when it does not exist, our lives become coarsened and brutal. For this reason, I am proud of my profession, but also aware of its importance.

My works are Chinese literature, which is part of world literature. They show the life of Chinese people as well as the country's unique culture and folk customs.

The sun, a red wheel, was sinking slowly in the west. Besides being spectacularly beautiful, the early-summer sunset was exceedingly soft and gentle: black mulberry leaves turned as red as roses; pristine white acacia petals shed an enshrouding pale-green aura. Mild evening breezes made both the mulberry leaves and the acacia petals dance and whirl, filling the woods with a soft rustle.

I think writers write for their consciences, they write for their own true audiences, for their souls.

A writer should bury his thoughts deep and convey them through the characters in his novel.

I know what real courage is, and I understand true compassion.

For a country boy, poor as I was, whose constant worry was to be able to have enough to eat, the Army guaranteed one's survival.

Some may want to shout on the street, but we should tolerate those who hide in their rooms and use literature to voice their opinions.

A writer should always bravely face life, risking death and mutilation in order to dethrone an emperor.

The act of giving voice to this spiritual suffering is, in my view, the sacred duty of the writer.

All kinds of mysterious phenomena exist in this world, but answers to most of them have come with advances in scientific knowledge. Love is the sole holdout-nothing can explain it. A Chinese writer by the name of Ah Cheng wrote that love is just a chemical reaction, an unconventional point of view that seemed quite fresh at the time. But if love can be controlled and initiated by means of chemistry, then novelists would be out of a job. So while he may have had his finger on the truth, I'll remain a member of the loyal opposition.

I am also well aware that literature only has a minimal influence on political disputes or economic crises in the world, but its significance to human beings is ancient.

Possibly because I've lived so much of my life in difficult circumstances, I think I have a more profound understanding of life.