“Today, we jump into this globalization of the economy and the internet age.”

To call yourself a Chinese artist or woman artist or African artist reflects a certain kind of condition. To me, that is not necessary.

I never felt like a Chinese citizen because I was pushed away at a very young age. My father, a writer, was a national enemy of the Communist Party. He was forbidden to write for 20 years.

If I look at it, I would laugh. I don’t know how I became successful.

He will still mean danger. Modern technology requires calm. You shouldn’t trust anyone with a car who has no knowledge about vehicles or roads.

I think everybody deserves freedom. Freedom is such an abstract word, but it’s all we need.

The misconception of totalitarianism is that freedom can be imprisoned. This is not the case. When you constrain freedom, freedom will take flight and land on a windowsill.

So for too long Americans take liberty as granted. We think we are in the safe hand, the democracy and the liberty, which is not true. And it can be even getting much worse than today.

I think it’s a responsibility for any artist to protect freedom of expression and to use any way to extend this power.

I think U.S. and China is a big opportunity, to be seen as partner or some kind of strategic partner maybe. But those kind of powers have a way of getting too big, then we’ll have competition.

Stupidity can win for a moment, but it can never really succeed because the nature of humans is to seek freedom. Rulers can delay that freedom, but they cannot stop it.

There isn’t a single Chinese university that can invite me to give a talk. Even though I know there are many students who would like to hear what I have to say.

These folks are creative and ironic, and the government can ultimately not control what is going on in their heads.

People have been longing for this moment, because it symbolises a turning point in China’s relationship with the outside world.

[Museums] all belongs to the cultural department, which is the biggest cultural department in the world.

I curated this show [Shanghai Biennale ], I was by no means trying to shock people or be controversial.

A lot of the time [in the U.S.], I was thinking about how spending time is always questionable or is always the biggest obstacle in my life.

When you don’t have equality of opportunity because you don’t have equal access to education, it just seems so outrageous. It weakens our economy and leads to more inequality.

Economists often like startling theorems, results which seem to run counter to conventional wisdom.

GDP tells you nothing about sustainability.

We won’t have an economic recovery until Covid-19 is under control.

Letting bygones be bygones is a basic principle in economics.

A robust economy is a source of national strength for Japan.

Development is about transforming the lives of people, not just transforming economies.

But while I loved all of these courses, there was an irresistible attraction of economics.