“I believe [the architecture firm] Herzog and de Meuron and our collaboration made the product the best it could be.”

I think I’m just a traveler. When you walk across a river and there’s no bridge, you build one. I’m used to having to deal with Chinese Communist ideology.

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.

Negotiation talks are the best way to solve anything. We must replace wars and weapons with negotiations and talks.

You can dominate a game if you dominate on the line… We’re just going to have to go out there and work hard and blow people off the ball, and let our runners do what they do best.

The best advice anybody could have given me was to keep getting up over and over again.

I’m just going to be the best version of me that I could possibly be and be as funny as I possibly can.

It seems the best work I do is when I am really allowing the unconscious to rule the page and then later I can go back and hack around and make sense of things.

Children make up the best songs, anyway. Better than grown-ups. Kids are always working on songs and throwing them away, like little origami things or paper airplanes. They don’t care if they lose it; they’ll just make another one.

Problems are chances for us to do our best.

In high school I was best in music class on the trumpet, but the prizes went to the boys with blue eyes. I made up my mind to outdo anybody white on my horn.