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.

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.

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.

At the age of fifteen my grandmother became the concubine of a warlord general.

Living in Maryland, I saw that the opportunities were far greater in California than back home.

If you work hard doing the wrong job, is it really work? Or is it some kind of fakery?

The Nuclear Industry is conducting a war against humanity.

The bride, the white bride today a maiden, tomorrow a wife.

Company culture is the backbone of any successful organization.

And when you pray to God regularly, irregular things happen on a regular basis.

I generally have one or two drinks. I hang out in the dressing room, and it's not always the most attractive place to be, so just being able to have a drink is nice.

It strengthens the bonds between nations to have the same civil laws and the same monetary system.

I never read a book I must review; it prejudices you so.

We are now in the 21st century: all books, including the Koran, should be fair game for flushing down the toilet without fear of violent reprisal.