“We’re different, and you’re dangerous.” That kind of thinking stops human, civilized evolution. It’s dangerous to create that kind of tension.”

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.

During the days in detention, I thought most about the moon.

I have to respect my life, and free expression is part of my life. I can never really silence myself.

Even if there have been setbacks during these past years, China is changing. China’s society is opening.

I always want people to be confused, to be shocked or realize something later.

Freedom of expression is a very essential condition for me to make any art. Also, it is an essential value for my life. I have to protect this right and also to fight for the possibility.

The tragic reality of today is reflected in the true plight of our spiritual existence. We are spineless and cannot stand straight.

The fantasy we had with pearls was always so luxurious and unique with a kind of rareness.

A nation that has no music and no fairytales is a tragedy.

Ordinary people should have the same ability to understand art as anybody else. I don’t think art is elite or mysterious. I don’t think anybody can separate art from politics.

Everyone of us is a potential convict.

My definition of art has always been the same. It is about freedom of expression, a new way of communication. It is never about exhibiting in museums or about hanging it on the wall.

If artists cannot speak up for human dignity or rights, then who else will do it?

If there is no free speech, every single life has lived in vain

The motivation is really to say people can find the game of getting involved interesting and find the problem and really have the passion and the enthusiasm to solve it and move forward, but that’s all I know.

We’re persecuted in the most civilized languages.

Fear is not the natural state of civilized people.

Is it possible that nobody has ever known that there never has been a completely civilized man, and won’t be for another thousand years?

It is not alone that justice is wounded by denying women a part in the making of the civilized world.

No nation, savage or civilized, save only the United States of America, has confessed its inability to protect its women save by hanging, shooting, and burning alleged offenders

We need a spirit of victory, a spirit that will carry us to our rightful place under the sun, a spirit which can recognize that we, as inheritors of a proud civilization, are entitled to our rightful place on this planet. If that indomitable spirit were to arise, nothing can hold us from achieving our rightful destiny.

There is no way that writers can be tamed and rendered civilized or even cured.

To stand for positions and points of view, to jointly develop a civilized view on the administrative and state organization of Chechnya.