“Bei Dao became the most well-known name for me because of certain criticism of my work. Bei Dao was the name under which my work was criticized. So I became more well-known under Bei Dao than under the other names.”

Being a poet in the States is quite different from being one in China, because in the States poetry depends on the universities for its support. They finance the poets and help them get published. That isn’t so in China. But overall it is the same. You can’t change society with poetry.

On the one hand poetry is useless. It can’t change the world materially. On the other hand it is a basic part of human existence. It came into the world when humans did. It’s what makes human beings human.

As a writer, the most important thing for me is to continue to write, no matter where I am.

Freedom is nothing but the distance between the hunter and the hunted.

Perhaps the final hour is come I have left no testament Only a pen, for my mother I am no hero in an age without heroes I just want to be a man.

I don’t think of writing my poems for China or for the world. I mainly think of a small audience of friends and people I know. I am writing for that small group. They are not necessarily going to be able to read it, but that’s what I have in mind when I write.

Writing is the thing that sustains me and keeps me going. It is a form of self-preservation for me.

In the world I am Always a stranger I do not understand its language It does not understand my silence

The name Bei Dao was actually given to me with the help of friends. When we were publishing our unofficial magazine, Today, we wanted to avoid being harassed by the police so we were trying to think of names that we could use. It was done very casually.

I just hope I don’t have to explain all the times I’ve used His name in vain when I get up there.

When I was better known than her, she put my name in that tent. I was asked to do Celebrity Big Brother, but why should I? We live in an age where fame is not related to what you do.

In my mind, not in real life. My rap name will be Optimus Rhymes. Or the Notorious B.o.B.

Intelligent people tend to talk about the facts. They don’t sit around and call each other names. That’s what you can find on a third grade playground.

I have no idea why my mom picked Bob, and I’ve never asked her. My name used to get slaughtered all the time by other people. I was ‘Desmond’ or ‘Damon’ or ‘Demon.’ So Bob’s cool.

I wanted to use some kind of name so people would know where I was from. So I took the name “bluegrass.” There is not a prettier name in the whole world.

I totally heard by chance that they were doing the casting for a James Bond movie, and that one of the auditions was taking place in Paris. So I tried myself to contact every name involved in the movie I could possibly find on the IMDb!

Saints and mystics throughout history have adorned their realisations with different names and given them different faces and interpretations, but what they are all fundamentally experiencing is the essential nature of the mind.