My parents were hippies, and the story is that they went through a dictionary looking for a beautiful word to name me. They nearly called me Banyan, but flipped a few pages on and reached "China," thankfully. The other reason they liked it is that "china" is Cockney rhyming slang for "mate." People say "my old china," meaning "my old mate," because "china plate" rhymes with "mate.
China MievilleWord spread because word will spread. Stories and secrets fight, stories win, shed new secrets, which new stories fight, and on.
China MievilleEvery book I write, the first thing I have to do is get into the voice, and the voice varies from book to book - that's part of what's interesting to me.
China MievilleOld stories would tell how Weavers would kill each other over aesthetic disagreements, such as whether it was prettier to destroy an army of a thousand men or to leave it be, or whether a particular dandelion should or should not be plucked. For a Weaver, to think was to think aesthetically. To act - to Weave - was to bring about more pleasing patterns. They did not eat physical food: they seemed to subsist on the appreciation of beauty.
China MievilleA trap is only a trap if you don't know about it. If you know about it, it's a challenge.
China Mieville