Women are always told, 'You're not going to make it, its too difficult, you can't do that, don't enter this competition, you'll never win it,' - they need confidence in themselves and people around them to help them to get on.

Some people really live and work within the same doctrine, the same diagram with the same logic.

My father was a politician, and a very important politician, and one of the leaders of the Iraqi Democratic Party, who believed in progress.

When I first came to Guangzhou in 1981, it seemed such a hard and dour place with everyone in Chairman Mao uniforms.

One has to strive for a very open liberal society.

Would they call me a diva if I were a guy?

I made a decision when I was in school that I'd have a lot of male friends.