“My typical day is I wake up and appreciate that I can still wake up.”

Everything is art. Everything is politics.

[Cultural department] understand nothing but bureaucratic daily affairs. They don’t care about culture.

Even today the borders they’re seeing the physical borders are very different from the political borders. Because all those powers are so connected, and you cannot even see whose interest in what move.

In my case, I was stuck there for quite a while. New York is large enough to be a very abstract city, so nobody cares.

The importance of elections, transparency, legal procedures, an independent army, and the judicial system is not regarded as highly in China. These core values are the most important evidence of the health of a society, quality of life, and security.

It’s just a way you have to set up some kind of activities to follow your instincts or your curiosities.

We should also leave behind discrimination, because it is narrow-minded and ignorant, denies contact and warmth; and corrodes mankind’s belief that we can better ourselves.

Creativity is the power to reject the past, to change the status quo, and to seek new potential. Simply put, aside from using one’s imagination – perhaps more importantly – creativity is the power to act.

I never really read Allen Ginsberg poetry, even though I have a book he gave me.

Any politician who respects China’s government should tell it openly what is in his heart. It is disrespectful to keep quiet about such issues – both vis-a-vis the government and the people concerned.

What counts in the end is what the government does.

Creativity is part of human nature. It can only be untaught.

In my life, I often make so-called major decisions by very quick, immediate responses.

Civilization has evolved toward more acceptance, understanding and tolerance of global thinking. If we accept differences, our creativity booms. It makes life much more colorful.

Now you have the equal opportunity to equip yourself through information and knowledge and express yourself as an independent mind.

Just look at the statistics: Each university has tens of thousands of applications for students who want to be in art school, but they can only accept a few hundred.

I am a typical Libran. I tend to see two sides of everything.

Speculators often prosper through ignorance; it is a cliché that in a roaring bull market knowledge is superfluous and experience is a handicap. But the typical experience of the speculator is one of temporary profit and ultimate loss

I didn’t do the typical things that young kids do.

stereotypes are awfully misleading. There are typical librarians, but not all librarians are typical.

Negative feelings are typical of learning, and you shouldn’t feel like you’re stupid when you’re frustrated doing something. You might say to yourself, ‘I can’t do this,’ but you should say, ‘That’s great.’ That means you really have the potential to learn something there.

In a dream it’s typical not to be rational.

This is not true. Complex human problems typically require complex solutions with many different components.

Scratch the surface in a typical boardroom and we’re all just cavemen with briefcases, hungry for a wise person to tell us stories.