My goal is to strip things down so that you need just the right amount of words or shape to convey what you need to convey. I like editing. I like it very tight.

Warmth isn't what minimalists are thought to have.

I was always making things. Even though art was what I did every day, it didn't even occur to me that I would be an artist.

My grandfather, on my father's side, helped to draft one of the first constitutions of China. He was a fairly well-known scholar.

I can't shout out, "Do this." I don't want to be prescriptive. I want to give you facts, and that's the way I've always operated, whether it's a historical fact or a scientific fact, and then you actually have to connect it in your brain.

The only thing that mattered was what you were to do in life, and it wasn't about money. It was about teaching, or learning.

My parents are both college professors, and it made me want to question authority, standards and traditions.