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

Growing up, my family was an enemy of the state. I have experienced more disappointment than joy, much more sad stories or desperate conditions.

My angst and my insecurity reflect the state’s angst and insecurity. The state is scared too.

I never regret anything.

The relationship between the Chinese government and me is like a Cold War.

So, the politicians and the people who make decisions very often is the one we think can make some difference. But of course they will not make a difference if the citizens or the individuals not push it or not to speak out, to possess a very strong voice about, this is not acceptable.

If my art has nothing to do with people’s pain and sorrow, what is ‘art’ for?

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.

What I cry out for, like every being, with my whole life and all my earthly passion, is something very different from an equal to cherish: it is a God to adore.

Enable every woman who can work to take her place on the labour front, under the principle of equal pay for equal work.

My experience is that prose usually equals duty – last minute, overdue-deadline stuff or a panic lecture to be written.

He who marvels at the beauty of the world in summer will find equal cause for wonder and admiration in winter.

As a man is said to have a right to his property, he may be equally said to have a property in his rights.

A sap run is the sweet goodbye of winter. It is the fruit of the equal marriage of the sun and frost.

Your goals, minus your doubts, equal your reality.

That’s an exciting thing. In a class of fifteen there are usually two very good writers, equal to good student writers anywhere in the country. Those two make the class wonderful.