I was not allowed to take notes but my friend and I memorised those two and a half pages. Most people talked to me because of the warning. They knew this book was not going to be the official line.

If you have love, even plain cold water is sweet.

While I was writing Wild Swans I thought the famine was the result of economic mismanagement but during the research I realised that it was something more sinister.

I think because of their terrible past, particularly this century, the Chinese have come to accept cruelty more than many other people, which is something I feel very unhappy about

I remember when my mother pointed to a stone, and she said this was the kind of stone people used to place on the feet of the baby girls to stop them trying to climb away and unbind their feet.

China is more prosperous than before. The people have better lives but they are not happy and confident because the scars are still there.

What has marked Chinese society is its level of cruelty, not just revolutions and wars. We ought to reject it totally, otherwise in another upheaval there will be further cruelty.

When I was in China, Mao was Chairman, and parents were terrified to tell their children anything that differed from the party line in case the children repeated it and endangered the whole family.

When he asked my grandmother if she would mind being poor, she said she would be happy just to have her daughter and himself: 'If you have love, even plain water is sweet.

Although my book is banned I am still allowed to go to China and travel. There is no longer the kind of control that Mao used to have-there have been deep fundamental changes in society.

I would love mainland Chinese to read my book. There is a Chinese translation which I worked on myself, published in Hong Kong and Taiwan. Many copies have gone into China but it is still banned.

Facts are always required to draw conclusions and make serious decisions.

If you lose you're going to be fired and if you win you only put off the day you're going to be fired.

The key to the match might have been his serving. Maybe I should have concentrated harder on watching them go by me, I don't know.

Every President reconstructs the Presidency to meet his own psychological needs.

Compassion is our deepest nature. It arises from our interconnection with all things.

The world is on fire.

Art...must do something more than give pleasure: it should relate to our own life so as to increase our energy of spirit.

A spark neglected has often raised a conflagration.

Each one must do his part if we wish to show that the nation is worthy of its good fortune.

A writer is trying to create believable people in credible moving situations in the most moving way he can.