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.

If you have love, even plain cold water is sweet.

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

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.

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.

When you think it’s there it will be there. When you think it’s not there still it will be there.It is like a mirror which needs another mirror to see it. It is mind.

Circumstances alter cases.

Nothing brings more pain than too much pleasure; nothing more bondage than too much liberty.

Lord, here am I, send me, I will redeem every son and daughter of Adam and Eve that lives on the earth, or that ever goes on the earth.

Take noise-cancelling headphones, a good book, and wear comfy clothes.

All the women in my family were superb cooks.

Relationships are always worth restoring.

And if your head explodes with dark forebodings too I'll see you on the dark side of the moon.

I saw a subliminal advertising executive, but only for a second.

Women have a very good sense for seeing instantly what constitutes a good man. Not physically. The physical strength is only a small side of it.