“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.

Some ministers say, ‘If you don’t repent you’ll die and go to a place the name of which I can’t pronounce.’ I can! You’ll go to hell!

God is not about religion. Religion is a structure that should house our faith in God. Too often it is used to hurt other people in God’s name.

To be a Ranger is to sense the sacred trust of upholding all that such a name means in this shrine of football.

I didn’t always spell my name Bil. My parents named me Bill, but when I started drawing cartoons on the wall, they knocked the ‘L’ out of me.

We’re not at war with all Muslims, we’re at war with a subset of Islam that believes in killing in the name of religion, as jihadis do.

One American said that the most interesting thing about Holy Ireland was that its people hate each other in the name of Jesus Christ. And they do!

The suburb is a place where someone cuts down all the trees to build houses, and then names the streets after the trees.

A statesman is any politician it’s considered safe to name a school after.