I wanted to analyse and understand how the Chinese people could have their lives so crushed by fear.

I left Beijing in 1987, shortly before my books were banned there, but have returned continually.

When history is erased, people's moral values are also erased.

To become self-aware, people must be allowed to hear a plurality of opinions and then make up their own minds. They must be allowed to say, write and publish whatever they want. Freedom of expression is the most basic, but fundamental, right. Without it, human beings are reduced to automatons.

The literal meaning of the Chinese characters for revolution is elimination of life

The Chinese people have been forced to forget the Tiananmen massacre. There has been no public debate about the event, no official apology. The media aren't allowed to mention it. Still today people are being persecuted and imprisoned for disseminating information about it.

I believe that the power of literature is stronger than the power of tyranny.