There's no hope. There's no reason to keep trying. Because you must. This is not hope. Not reason. This is your fate. This is your life, what you must do.

With hope, a mind is always free.

I think books were my salvation, they saved me from being miserable.

I felt foolish and tired, as if I had been running to escape someone chasing me, only to look behind to discover there was no one there.

People there only dream that it is China, because if you are Chinese you can never let go of China in your mind.

He asked if he could recite a poem he had written that morning: 'You speak,' he said, 'the language of shooting stars, more surprising than sunrise, more brilliant than the sun, as brief as sunset. I want to follow its trail to eternity.

You can have pride in what you do each day, but not arrogance in what you were born with.