To express yourself needs a reason, but expressing yourself is the reason.

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.

Behind every political deal in this country, the first casualties are always the ordinary people, who are barely treated as human.

Even though everybody who looked at me would call me a Chinese artist, that's the 1980s. New York in the '80s was not so interesting. I think it's quite narrow-minded. There wasn't much encouragement or opportunities for any artist - not just Chinese artists.

Once you've tasted freedom, it stays in your heart...

I don't think I was very structured in that society and I don't really believe in personal success, which most Americans believe in.

That's why I always question this sense. The feeling of home really requires a lot of trust. It requires you to identify with it, which I always find myself very contradictory to.