No, It's hard to uproot yourself and really become yourself in another soil, but it's also an opportunity, another kind of growth.

Life is a journey, and you can't carry everything with you. Only the usable baggage.

Without writing, what would I have become? Nothing. In China the individual used to be treated as a screw or a small cog in the revolutionary machine. I wanted to be a human being with a voice.

I don't think of myself as a dissident, and I'm more of an immigrant than an exile.

Writing is not a great profession as a lot of writers proclaim. I write because this is something I can do. Another thing—very often I think a lot of writers write because they have failed to do other things. How many writers can’t drive? A lot. They’re not practical. They are not capable in everyday life.

The more you move, the stronger you'll grow.

You strive to have a good heart. But what is a heart? Just a chunk of flesh that a dog can eat.