Novelist

When I lived in China, my works were already being banned, and I couldn't publish. In those days, when I was in China, I was writing for myself, so that's the process of writing for myself that was the most important thing.

Experience has taught me that any kind of political grouping is oppressive. It's the blind mass that crushes the individual.

Literature transcends national boundaries, racial boundaries. It goes deep into the issues that concern all human beings. That is why, when people read Greek tragedy - it doesn't matter who reads it - they are still moved by it.

When fashion sweeps in, artists follow suit. I think this is the malady of contemporary art.