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.

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

It's always the rich and there's plenty to waste, yet still China has a lot of people living in very spare, poor conditions.

I think we cannot have a double standard. We cannot see our art as different from the reality. We cannot use two different sets of judgment.

What is important is that we actively express our thoughts and wishes, in every realm that we can access.

I was an illegal alien for many, many years. I couldn't move. If I moved I could not even get a visa back.

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.