Yet what use against the deceit of a state are the memories of a child?

If you want to know a country, read its writers.

All liars ... lie to protect themselves, to shield their egos from the raw pain of truth.

War had the effect of encouraging people to try to stay alive. Poverty, too. Survival was simply too hard-won to be given up lightly.

What ultimately happened is that my country had a war. I think it would be extraordinary, as a writer, not to want to write about that.

I was brought up in a household where you stood up to be counted.

Jung Chang was the first person to tell a grand historical, political story through a personal narrative.

A dread filled me, a dread unlike any I had ever felt. Not the terror of God, or his angels, but the sickly fear of man.

I learned about women -- how we are made into the women we've become, how we shape ourselves, how we shape each other.

A life, a history, whole patterns of existence altered, simply by doing nothing. The silent lie. The act of omission.

What the best novels and novelists do is to offer a different way of seeing.

In 1963, while my brothers were engaged in their lives, I call this period of my life 'my character-building years.' I adhered to the saying, 'When the going gets tough, the tough get going.

Common people are merely intent on spending time - whoever has some talent, on making use of it.

Russian humor is to adapt or make some sense or nonsense out of the insanity of their lives.

Making money is a happiness. And that's a great incentive. Making other people happy is a super-happiness.

Never ran away for the sake of scars.

You're a no good heartbreaker, you're a liar, and you're a cheat. I don't know why I let you do these things to me.

The definition of flexibility is being constantly open to the fact that you might be on the wrong track.

A real leader spends his time fixing the problem instead of finding who to blame.

The closer you stay to emotional authenticity and people, character authenticity, the less you can go wrong. That's how I feel now, no matter what you're doing.

If you create any open space within yourself, love will fill it.