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

I loved New York — every inch of it. It was a little bit scary at that time, but still, the excitement was so strong — visually and intellectually. It was like a monster.

Even if there have been setbacks during these past years, China is changing. China's society is opening.

Everyone thinks the Chinese government selected me. Never ever. I was selected by Herzog and de Meuron.

I don't belong to a working system. They only select people if you belong to one so you can be controlled.

In the end, I think, the state's rigidity is a function of its own insecurity, its indecisiveness.

The misconception of totalitarianism is that freedom can be imprisoned. This is not the case. When you constrain freedom, freedom will take flight and land on a windowsill.