We grew up in a very material-lacking socialist society, but today China is a capitalist society. It's very materialistic. It's full of desire and luxury goods.

...photographs are facts, but not necessarily true... The present always surpasses the past, and the future will not care about today.

You need a purpose to express yourself, but that expression is its own purpose.

New York was not a romantic city at [80th]. Nobody knows who you are and you don't have to care about anybody else. It's a very cold city, I should say.

I don't believe in a sense of home.

I think of art as coming from daily life, daily experience. I think it's very important not to have it become work for some kind of elite circle.

I don’t want the next generation to fight the same fight as I did.