A writer should always bravely face life, risking death and mutilation in order to dethrone an emperor.

I am also well aware that literature only has a minimal influence on political disputes or economic crises in the world, but its significance to human beings is ancient.

I think that China has many outstanding authors, and their great works should also be recognised by the world.

Possibly because I've lived so much of my life in difficult circumstances, I think I have a more profound understanding of life.

I'll continue on the path I've been taking, feet on the ground, describing people's lives, describing people's emotions, writing from the standpoint of the ordinary people.

I think writers write for their consciences, they write for their own true audiences, for their souls.

Where there's life, death is inevitable. Dying's easy; it's living that's hard. The harder it gets, the stronger the will to live. And the greater the fear of death, the greater the struggle to keep on living.