My typical day is I wake up and appreciate that I can still wake up.

The American experience influenced my understanding of individuality, basic human rights, freedom of expression and the rights and responsibilities of citizens.

In a society like this there is no negotiation, no discussion, except to tell you that power can crush you any time they want — not only you, your whole family and all people like you.

I have to find a place for my own. I have to search for my own happiness.

I was in the most restricted prison in China, the most tough. The design of the prison is modeled for internal crimes of the Communist party, so it's like a mafia family's law. It's independent to the law this nation openly applies. It's the place they take you before they give you over to the judicial system. You stay there for a year or two and they make you really suffer to confess everything.

By participating in the society we live in, we understand our conditions and the way we relate to the world.

This is a very general understanding of art in China, that being an artist can make you money and turn you into a star.