To survive, China had to open up to the West. It could not survive otherwise. This was after many millions have died of hunger in a country that was like North Korea is today. Once we became part of global competition, we had to agree to some rules. It's painful, but we had to. Otherwise there was no way to survive.

Life is art. Art is life. I never separate it. I don’t feel that much anger. I equally have a lot of joy.

Twitter is the people’s tool, the tool of the ordinary people, people who have no other resources.

No outdoor sports can be more elegant than throwing stones at autocracy; no melees can be more exciting than those in cyberspace.

It doesn't matter where I am - China will stay in me. I don't know how far I can still walk on this road and what is the limit.

[Cultural department] understand nothing but bureaucratic daily affairs. They don't care about culture.

Somehow, we [ Tan Dun and director Chen Kaige] were all privileged at the time; we could be outside of China. But at the moment, we had no sense of what the future was going to be like.