It is vitally important for me, both personally and for my writing, to be able to return to China freely, so being barred entry has caused me deep concern and distress.

Beijing Coma took me 10 years to finish.

Only when you are aware of the uniqueness of everyones individual body will you begin to have a sense of your own self-worth.

When history is erased, people's moral values are also erased.

Everything I was I carry with me, everything I will belies waiting on the road ahead.

I believe that the power of literature is stronger than the power of tyranny.

China is completely lacking in self-awareness and as someone who has stepped outside that society, I have a responsibility to write about it as I see it.

I left Beijing in 1987, shortly before my books were banned there, but have returned continually.

Tyrannies not only want to control your mind and thoughts but your flesh as well.

What we mean by Tao is the way or course of Nature. This way has nothing good or bad, it is a mere flowing of things following the development and decline attributes of the moment.

The literal meaning of the Chinese characters for revolution is elimination of life

The starry vault of heaven is in truth the open book of cosmic projection.

That's all about the natural order of things, the idea of nature protecting children but also children protecting nature.

Now, my mom always said two wrongs don't make a right. But she never said anything about four wrongs, and that always left me confused.

The most wonderful taste of serenity is found by the love you create for yourself, and those around you.

Sometimes you'd come up against a brick wall... or sometimes you go into a fill and you'd know halfway through it was going to be disastrous.

Pretty stupid,” I called after his retreating form. “To give up before all possible solutions have been tried.

An erring colleague is not an Amalkite to be smitten hip and thigh.

I have definitely gone through my ups and downs and faced my adversity and my nay-sayers, but managed to do all right. It is a pretty classic tale.

And so, these are the things, the exploration of which, the singing about of which, makes us human beings. The exploration of the universe of the unseen is the business of human beings.