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.

Indifference is the strongest contempt.

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

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

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

English has more flexibility. It's a very plastic, very shapeable, very expressive language. In that sense it feels quite natural.

The more you move, the stronger you'll grow, not like a tree that can be killed if you uproot it.