Jean-Claude Carrière

Jean-Claude Carrière (17 September 1931 – 8 February 2021) was a French novelist, screenwriter and actor.

Quotes

 * In our enigmatic and often difficult relationships with the world, Buddhism offers a vocabulary, a certain number of conceptual and operational tools which allow us to dialogue. And this in very current areas such as overpopulation, ecology, conflict resolution, the role of modern science and its understanding. In more speculative areas, it also provides us with approaches, relations, always very practical, concerning questions about death, fear, suffering. Our traditions don't always have the answers, or perhaps they have become muddled...
 * From François Gautier Les mots du dernier Dalaï-lama (Flammarion, 2018)


 * Without a doubt, by his personality, at once warm, deep, laughing and obstinate, as well as by the exceptional events which made up his life, he largely influenced the development of Buddhism as a whole in the 20th century, making it clearer, more accessible, closer to humanity. Not knowing if his political fight will achieve the goal he seeks, he lives in the movement, and in the consciousness of this movement. He accepts the idea that he may be the last Dalai Lama. If, one day, the Tibetan people no longer want this institution, he will retire, he says, to a convent, without any possessions, to end his days there like an old monk bent over his staff. And in the end, he adds with a laugh, maybe it’s not bad.
 * About the Dalai Lama, as cited in François Gautier Les mots du dernier Dalaï-lama (Flammarion, 2018)