“I think the pearls – one is a necklace, and another you have five hundred pounds of pearls, which may be one million pearls in a bowl – really show a kind of [society] condition.”

I saw [Allen Ginsberg] more as an old man who liked poetry and who had a lot of physical and emotional problems. We liked our time together.

These are nonviolent people who have lost their freedom simply because they expressed their ideas….In truth, they are heroes of our time.

I will bring 1,001 Chinese to participate as my artwork there – any Chinese who is a Chinese passport holder and over eighteen years old could apply through my blog.

Self-censorship is insulting to the self. Timidity is a hopeless way forward.

I don’t think my father had a direct influence on me, but I do think, more or less, I was influenced by his independent individualism.

Chinese government is very clearly losing power in every aspect, but trying to fix up all the problems or potential problems.

The Internet changes the structure of society all the time — this massiveness made of individuals.

You can never know what is and what is not powerful, but you can always find out what the powerful people are scared of.

I’m an artist who is always looking for what is possible. I’m always looking to extend the boundaries.

When you have strict censorship of the internet, young students cannot receive a full education. Their view of the world is imbalanced. There can be no true discussion of the issues.

The rest of the world understands little about China’s changes and the possibilities and crises that come with them.

To the media, I have become a symbolic figure, critical of China. According to the government, I am a dangerous threat.

Hopefully, other successes aren’t like me. It carries much more meaning to other people; my success story is irrelevant. It doesn’t make any sense.

Each year, more people want to become artists.

Today, we jump into this globalization of the economy and the internet age.

Nationality and borders are barriers to our intelligence, to our imagination and to all kinds of possibilities.