By day I was a slave; by night, I was a prince.

Impressions are like pearls; ideas are like the string that turns the pearls into a necklace. The string is invisible, but it is not dispensable and cannot be broken.

The first principle of modern cultures may be their connectedness. Culture is like wind and wind knows no boundary or center. Once there is a center, wind becomes a whirlwind.

Growth will be slower, no one denies that. But the question is: Where are the chances and opportunities now? I see some positive and some negative trends.

Many Chinese entrepreneurs are now donating for education; others support foundations in health care and research. None of us wants to be the richest guy in the cemetery.

Isolation means a lack of growth. I grew up in China at a time when the country was completely isolated. That era is over.

Thomas Hardy once advised us to record impressions more and to express ideas less. Now and then I would remember this advice.

Did you ever find that there is room between the two opposing rules of a paradox? That space between two almost opposite rules is the ground where I play and write.

Chinese no longer crave so much for food and accommodation, but they do crave democracy. I stand by that. I don't know which model China will follow.

I feel that it would be tedious for a person to have only one life. It would be much better to have two or three lives going on simultaneously.

What is art in the final analysis? Art is the shining forth of one's interiority.

Still amazes me that people spend more time researching a new vehicle than they do the religion they entrust their souls to.

Stop the poverty! Where do they think they are going?!

Gie me a spark o' nature's fire that's a' the learning I desire.

...an everlasting funeral marches round your heart.

I have written much less than most people who write; I have drunk much more than most people who drink.

Sometimes you've got to shout the truth and wake people up.

That man is always happy who is in the presence of something which he cannot know to the full, which he is always going on to know.

I don't see it as a form of healing, because if you have wounds that are bleeding I don't think acting will ever get them to stop. But I find acting is a form of illumination.

Japan and Europe seem to have a little more cultural education and so the crowds have been a little more big and enthusiastic, and the places I've played seem a little more classy.

If I taught a class, on my final exam I would take an Internet company and ask, 'How much is this company worth?' Anyone who would answer, I would flunk.