Everybody contributes something to the system, and everybody suffers from the system.

She wonders if this is what people call falling in love, the desire to be with someone for every minute of the rest of her life so strong that sometimes she is frightened of herself.

There is a certain amount of politeness here in America, which is probably more than just politeness.

To write about a struggle amidst the struggling: one must hope that the muddling will end someday.

In China, your freedom is always limited, but this limitation applies to almost everyone. If someone does injustice to you, though, you have to find a way to avenge yourself - even by illegal measures. In a sense, injustice is more personal. This idea has always been in Chinese history. I think we read about freedom of speech, or lack of freedom of speech, in China so often. But I don't think people here in America think about how justice, or the idea of justice, is so important in a Chinese setting. It's probably more important than freedom of speech in the Chinese mindset at this moment.

Even the most innocent person, when cornered, is capable of a heartless crime.

What a long way it is from one life to another: yet why write if not for that distance; if things can be let go, every before replaced by an after.