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

Even if I have hundreds of things to do, the disconnected feeling is still there because it is very hard to find a real purpose of life.

This week, the world gathers in Beijing for the 2008 Olympic games. This is the extraordinary moment China has been dreaming of for 100 years. People have been longing for this moment, because it symbolises a turning point in China's relationship with the outside world.

If civil society has nobody who protects the law, then what kind of society is that?

For artists and intellectuals today, what is most needed is to be clear about social responsibility, because that is what most people automatically give up. Just to protect yourself as an individual is very political. You don't have to march on Tiananmen, but you do have to be clear-minded, to find your own means of expression.

Warhol influenced me because of his writing. If I had never read his writings and interviews, I would never have understood his work.

I suddenly realized I was getting ten opening notes a day on my mobile phone, more than when I was in New York. But this is China, where nothing is surprising.