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

If people are being abused or even killed during an arrest, this is highly disturbing.

I don’t think [price] reflects if the work is good or bad.A good artist shouldn’t be nervous about that.

A clear understanding of such differences will help the rest of the world understand China and all that is happening to the nation.

I also have to speak out for people around me who are afraid, who think it is not worth it or who have totally given up hope. So I want to set an example: you can do it and this is OK, to speak out.

The leadership knows that you cannot solve the issues of China’s future with the means of the past. The demographic consequences of the one-child policy, the build-up of the welfare state.

Without freedom of speech, there is no modern world, just a barbaric one.

I spend a lot of time talking to journalists.

In China, we don’t have any contemporary art museums. Until a few years ago, we didn’t even have a gallery.

The IT people who have made such an effort to know and understand computer technology. They are frustrated that you cannot use Facebook, Twitter and YouTube in China. They are the first to recognize that the situation is terrible.

China didn’t want to lose the cutting edge of technology. So the idea of having a Sina Weibo was an attempt to compete with Twitter. However, it has no soul – which is freedom of expression. Nevertheless,

It’s very essential values that we all have to protect. But in Chinese society, people are giving up on protecting these values.

I think Allen [Ginsberg] was a person who’s like a child.

A small act is worth a million thoughts.

It is to wonder about the world, to understand the nature of people and, most importantly, to be shared with another, old or young, known or unknown.

Somehow, we [ Tan Dun and director Chen Kaige] were all privileged at the time; we could be outside of China. But at the moment, we had no sense of what the future was going to be like.

Mass production is nothing new. Weren’t cathedrals built through mass production? The pyramids?

That which is easy is bad for your inner life.

For men who had easily endured hardship, danger and difficult uncertainty, leisure and riches, though in some ways desirable, proved burdensome and a source of grief.

Things worth having don’t come easy,” Woods said. “You have to fight for it until you’re tired of fighting, and then you take a breather and fight some more.” He squeezed my shoulder. “Don’t give up. You’ll regret it.

Easy is right. Begin right and you are easy. Continue easy and you are right. The right way to go easy is to forget the right way, and forget that the going is easy.

People are always asking what’s the secret of my success, and the answer is easy – at least for me. You have to have a strong inner drive.

Some sell their soul for the easy road. The devil’s always buying. I can’t count the ones I’ve known who fell right into line.

Nothing is as easy or natural as consumer brands want us to think – no problem is as resolvable. Your hair will fall out, eventually. Yet we do have these brands, and we line our shelves with them. There’s an inherent irony.

When a great moment knocks on the door of your life, it is often no louder than the beating of your heart, and it is very easy to miss it.