“They lack any ability to sense what is beautiful or what is proper. They can be learned and skillful, but they lack the ability to make their own free judgment. It is really sad to see young adults of 20, 25 years who were never taught to make their own decisions.”

The society was so different [in China] – it was a feudalistic society. It didn’t come to a point of industrial revolution until twenty years ago.

China restricts the society’s freedom of speech. The Communist Party imposes these limits because it lacks confidence towards the future and has no ideals.

I think by shattering it we can create a new form, a new way to look at what is valuable – how we decide what is valuable.

The museums used to be exhibition halls for government propaganda, and now every city wants to build a museum.

The people will always have the last word – even if someone has a very weak, quiet voice. Such power will collapse because of a whisper.

To give a price to an artwork, no matter how high or low, is always absurd. It’s not something that can be measured by money or by certain numbers.

We are living in a popular culture where everything is overexposed.

My definition of art has always been the same. It is about freedom of expression. I don’t think anybody can separate art from politics. The intention to separate [the two] is itself a very political intention.

To express yourself needs a reason, but expressing yourself is the reason.

Man has a tendency to try to give clear reasons to be rational, but often you can see how all those reasons are not convincing and turn out to be a big nonsense.

Dictatorship is a story about death of others who turn out to be you coincidently.

China hasn’t only existed for one day. Now, the whole nation has become richer and it’s become a problem. The problem is universal. The factor is big. Everybody has to rethink the balance of the world and the whole landscape.

I don’t care if this is a great cultural event or a national symbol. It has nothing to do with me. It deals with the city.

I think China is laughing about the results of the presidential elections. China, Russia, they all laugh about it.

Say what you say plainly, and then take responsibility for it.

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

I’ve learned one important lesson in my life, and I’m going to share it with you.

Learned how to survive without anything.

And I think I have learned more than any of those teenagers have in school.

But I learned that art can be found in all of life, even in pain.

I learned a new language for it all in the 90s. Which in some ways isn’t bad.

I learned to be responsible, leaving my family and coming here alone.

I never thought I would type that I learned how to emote in poems from watching Star Trek but there it is.

One of the things I learned in law school is that there’s nothing wrong or undesirable.