Putu Wijaya
Putu Wijaya, whose real name is I Gusti Ngurah Putu Wijaya, is an Indonesian author who was born in Bali on 11 April 1944. He was the youngest of eight siblings (three of them from a different father). He lived in a large housing complex with around 200 people who were all members of the same extended family, and were accustomed to reading. His father, I Gusti Ngurah Raka, was hoping for Putu to become a doctor, but Puti was weak in the natural sciences. He liked history, language and geography.
Putu Wijaya has already written around 30 novels, 40 dramas, about a hundred short stories, and thousands of essays, free articles and drama criticisms. He has also produced film and soap-opera scripts. He led the Teater Mandiri theatre since 1971, and has received numerous prices for literary works and soap-opera scripts.
He's short stories often appear in the columns of the daily newspapers Kompas and Sinar Harapan. His novels are often published in the magazines Kartini, Femina and Horison. As a script writer, he has two times won the Citra prize at the Indonesian Film Festival, for the movies Perawan Desa (1980) and Kembang Kertas (1985).
“Di zaman edan ini, siapa yang tidak frustrasi? Kalau kamu ikutkan perasaanmu, kamu akan gila. Tetapi, semua orang memang sudah gila. Kamu tidak akan menjadi istimewa karena menjadi gila.”
“Artiku tidak bergantung dari kehadiranku, tetapi pada cintaku dan cinta yang diberikan kepadaku yang tak akan pernah tak hadir. Karenanya, sekali aku menyalakan rumah ini, nyala itu akan tetap tak akan pernah padam.”
“Segala aturan dan beban itu memang disengaja. Itu sudah merupakan paket, agar tingkah laku jadi selalu laras dan terkendali. Tekanan adalah juga kendali.”
“Saya akan lebih mendulukan kebenaran-kebenaran universal, bukan hutang budi, bukan kewajiban moral dan bukan juga pengabdian buta.”
“Ini buktinya. Kalau tidak adil memang begini. Semua orang bisa gila.”
“bagus ceritanya”
“Orang gila tak perlu berpikir, sebab dia tahu tak ada gunanya.”