Only two kinds of daughters, she shouted in Chinese. Those who are obedient and those who follow their own mind!

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

I also thought of playing improvisational jazz and I did take lessons for a while. At first I tried to write fiction by making up things that were completely alien to my life.

All objects exist in a moment of time.

Who knows where inspiration comes from. Perhaps it arises from desperation. Perhaps it comes from the flukes of the universe, the kindness of the muses.

I saw what I had been fighting for: it was for me, a scared child.

I would find myself laughing and wondering where these ideas came from. You can call it imagination, I suppose. But I was grateful for wherever they came from.