Mrs. Pang was once a nanny for me, and she spoils me the way I imagined kindhearted women would spoil an orphan, loving me for whom I am, exactly the opposite of my mother, whose love I have to earn with great effort and with little success.

What is revolution except a systematic way for one species to eat another alive?

If I didn't self-censor, I would be in jail, and then I wouldn't be effective at all.

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

I always tell my students to go back after a hundred pages and rewrite from the beginning. It's really harder if you've already finished four hundred pages and realize the first hundred aren't working.

Some people in China don't look at freedom of speech as an abstract ideal, but more as a means to an end.

Overall there may be less censorship in America than in China, but censorship and self-censorship are not only from political pressure, but also pressures from other places in a society.