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

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.

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

In its essence, a meal is a creative act that has its genesis in the mind of someone who cares enough to plan it, gather ingredients and labor over its creation.

This is how deeply rooted stories are, folks. We crave them before we can walk, and we start telling them before we can talk.

Strategy is about heading North while keeping an eye on the South.

You really have to work hard and apply yourself and by applying yourself and working hard and being diligent, you can achieve success.

The Gospel is open to all; the most respectable sinner has no more claim on it than the worst.

Overnight I became a cottage industry.

The history of science, like the history of all human ideas, is a history of irresponsible dreams, of obstinacy, and of error.

We are always running, and it has become a habit. We struggle all the time, even during our sleep. We are at war with ourselves, and we can easily start a war with others.

It is only natural to expect that guilds will tend to "protect their turf" and to resist challenge.

I've never seen myself as an artist. So when that happened it was like a whole other crazy thing.