Mo Yan Quotes

Finally, she mused that human existence is as brief as the life of autumn grass, so what was there to fear from taking chances with your life?

~ Mo Yan

My little donkey, if I hadn't shown up, your fate would have been sealed. Love has saved you. Is there anything else that could erase the innate fears of a donkey and send him to rescue you from certain death? No. That is the only one. With a call to arms, I, Ximen Donkey, charged down the ridge and headed straight for the wolf that was tailing my beloved. My hooves kicked up sand and dust as I raced down from my commanding position; no wolf, not even a tiger, could have avoided the spearhead aimed at it. It saw me too late to move out of the way, and I thudded into it, sending it head over heels. Then I turned around and said to my donkey, Do not fear my dear, I am here!

~ Mo Yan

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

~ Mo Yan

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.

~ Mo Yan

The cliche that sea dry up and rocks rot away, but the heart never changes is nothing but a beautiful fantasy.

~ Mo Yan

The young must not scoff at the old, for flowers don’t bloom forever

~ Mo Yan

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.

~ Mo Yan

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

~ Mo Yan

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.

~ Mo Yan