“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.”

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

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.

The habit of being happy enables one to be freed, or largely freed, from the domination of outward conditions.

Every heart that has beat strongly and cheerfully has left a hopeful impulse behind it in the world, and bettered the tradition of mankind.

Men who do things without being told draw the most wages.

All human beings are commingled out of good and evil.

There are quantities of human beings, but there are many more faces, for each person has several.

I love Los Angeles, and it’s been very good to me, but if everyone is running around telling the stories, who’s living them?

Nothing hinders a thing from being natural so much as the straining ourselves to make it seem so.

My sister’s also very, very competitive but she is more concerned than I am with being liked. So she hides it away. I try to make my competitiveness part of my charm.