It is vitally important for me, both personally and for my writing, to be able to return to China freely, so being barred entry has caused me deep concern and distress.

China is completely lacking in self-awareness and as someone who has stepped outside that society, I have a responsibility to write about it as I see it.

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

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

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

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

Red Dust was about the late 1980s; it was a time of burgeoning hopes and opening up and people searching for new ways.