Quotes

We didn't want to demonize the soldiers, but we just wanted to emphasize [that] in wartime all human nature can transform in the blink of an eye.

I believe all free thinkers, all artists and writers, should be independent from the mainstream so they won't take the value system or moral standards of the mainstream for granted. They should take it as their duty to question and doubt the way of life and way of thinking of the majority. I am glad to live overseas as a Chinese writer, to remain independent and critical of both sides.

...during all the political campaigns of the past century in China, who didn't hide in false identities? When one can't show one's real self, and tells nothing but lies, can I say they hide in their false identities? That is what Chinese people are, always hiding in what they are not.

Literature doesn't stop war, but it helps us understand what wars can do to human hearts, and what worst or best behaviors wars can trigger (in) us.

Chinese life is very unknown to the rest of the world," "I have this sense of a mission to introduce it.