Somehow, we [ Tan Dun and director Chen Kaige] were all privileged at the time; we could be outside of China. But at the moment, we had no sense of what the future was going to be like.

Your own acts tell the world who you are and what kind of society you think it should be.

A small act is worth a million thoughts.

Creativity is part of human nature. It can only be untaught.

The art always wins. Anything can happen to me, but the art will stay.

The world is not changing if you don’t shoulder the burden of responsibility.

Maybe being powerful means to be fragile.

Everything is art. Everything is politics.

I think art certainly is the vehicle for us to develop any new ideas, to be creative, to extend our imagination, to change the current conditions.

I think optimism is whether you are still exhilarated by life, whether you are curious, whether you still believe there is possibility.

The purpose of art is the fight for freedom.

Let us applaud the howls of the ignorant extremists as we stand on a knife-edge, not glad, but in acknowledgement of the bad, sad, mad gifts that the regime continue to offer us.

In levying taxes and in shearing sheep, it is well to stop when you get down to the skin.

You have to read history. You have to have a sense of history.

No one can ever write about anything that happened to him after he was twelve years old.

If you don't fully take every moment and love every moment and every person that you're with, your life will be over before you realise.

Thus I set my printless feet O'er the cowslip's velvet head, That bends not as I tread.

I went to film school to make films just because you're in control of the story.

The United States is a warning rather than an example to the world.

Individuals sometimes feel insignificant and doubt that one person can really make a difference in this world. Well, believe me, one person can.

There are severe limitations on civil rights. In the international arena, Iran is turning into an isolated country, and the international community is becoming more hostile toward it.