“Of course, most luxury goods in China are for corrupted officials and their relatives. And that made China become the biggest luxury-goods market.”

I lived there [ in New York City] as an artist, but never as a Chinese artist.

As a total activity – I practice curating, art, architecture, writing, and publishing all together. I still act as a living creature.

For artists and intellectuals today, what is most needed is to be clear about social responsibility, because that is what most people automatically give up. Just to protect yourself as an individual is very political.

I think the pearls – one is a necklace, and another you have five hundred pounds of pearls, which may be one million pearls in a bowl – really show a kind of [society] condition.

If you don’t act, the danger becomes stronger.

It’s the place they take you before they give you over to the judicial system. You stay there for a year or two and they make you really suffer to confess everything.

I don’t think there is a distinct change, because in the West I’m not a person who can serve his purpose.

You know about the fantasies related to the classics, but there is no real discussion about today’s life and no discussion of the real conditions – which is really sickening.

I’m totally independent. I don’t bear any responsibility to any system.

Life is never guaranteed to be safe, so we better use it while we are still in good condition.

For years, I refused to go to any openings, not even my own.

I was in the most restricted prison in China, the most tough. The design of the prison is modeled for internal crimes of the Communist party, so it’s like a mafia family’s law. It’s independent to the law this nation openly applies.

I grew up in a desert, which has no kind of imagination.

Being an artist is more of a mindset, a way of seeing things; it is no longer so much about producing something.

We literally lived underground. We dug a hole and lived there for years. My father cleaned public toilets, even though he was a highly respected poet.

As a human being, member of society, you must clearly state your mind. It’s a responsibility. It is the way you identify yourself otherwise you don’t know who you are and why you are here.

I’m from there. You know, when you grow up with these people and see them every day and then you look at the numbers… it was easy; it was a no-brainer. And when Sony took a look, it was a no-brainer to them, too.

Forgiveness is too easy. I can forget by indifference, but not forgive. I prefer revenge.

Finding your own style is not easy, but once found it brings complete happiness. It gives you self-confidence, always.

It wasn’t until late in life that I discovered how easy it is to say, ‘I don’t know.’

It is easy enough to define what the Commonwealth is not. Indeed this is quite a popular pastime.

I can only do what’s easy. I can only entice and be enticed. I can’t, and won’t, attempt difficult relations. If I marry it will either be a man who’s strong enough to boss me or whom I’m strong enough to boss.

It’s hard to play well, but it’s easy to work hard.

I always wondered how I could tell when the right one came along – but it was easy. He was the only one that came along.