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.

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

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.

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.

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.

That's what people do who love you. They put their arms around you and love you when you're not so lovable.

I'm everyone everywhere with you without you unbound set free in limbo lost at sea.

When you are 20, 40 looks really old. When I was nearing 30, that seemed like a major milestone.

The problem is, we have leaders and negotiators that don't realize we have the power. And they're essentially incompetent. And we would be able to straighten out that thing.

You know, my view is that we have a big world out there.

No matter where I am on this planet, I am always safe.

So here is the Great Society. It's the time - and it's going to be soon - when nobody in this country is poor.

I will say what I want to say. I had some homosexual experiences as a young person.

When you hear a good traditional gospel song it makes you wanna go buy a three piece suit

Whatever flames upon the night Man's own resinous heart has fed.