Whatever you see - any good results - are all from the pressure.

I wanted to become a kindergarten teacher like my mother.

In China, we don't consider someone truly beautiful until we have known them for a long time, and we know what's underneath the skin.

For myself I don't like the geisha look. It's like a mask.

There's nothing in Chinese culture that is an equivalent of the geisha. It's so different, so special to Japan.

I want, through my roles, to express the parts in the hearts of Chinese women that they feel unable to let out.

I don't care if you love me or not. I'll love you anyway.

The atmosphere at my school was very competitive. Young girls were competing with each other every day for status, for leadership, for the affection of the teachers. I hated it.

I'm not really interested in politics, because I think it's just too removed from my own life. If there's a war, though, or a disaster, I want to know what's happening.

Actually I ran away from school when I was 13. No one could find me, and the police were called. I was just hiding in a little thicket of grass at my school, and went to sleep.

I wanted to escape so badly. But of course I knew I couldn't just give up and leave school. It was only when I heard my mom's voice that I came out of my hiding place.

A fallen blossomreturning to the bough, I thought --But no, a butterfly.

A man travels fastest who travels alone.

The real kiss of death - particularly with my father - is the extraordinary popularity of his work.

Your true value is determined by how much more you give in value than you take in payment.

I think I did 97 pitch meetings, and even at the 97th meeting, there were questions I was getting that I hadn't had in the - you know, any of the 96 preceding ones.

I don't exactly know what it means to be ready. A cake when the oven timer goes off? Am I fully baked, or only half-baked?

Few things are better in the world than a room full of librarians. I consider them literary heroes. The keepers and defenders of the written word.

A fisherman's walk: three steps and overboard.

Don't be discouraged by your incapacity to dispel darkness from the world. Light your little candle and step forward.

I was raised in Chicago, so always used Latina. It's what my Father and brothers called ourselves, when we meant the entire Spanish-speaking community of Chicago.