I suppose I'm proudest of my novels for what's imagined in them. I think the world of my imagination is a richer and more interesting place than my personal biography.

The Chinese art world does not exist. In a society that restricts individual freedoms and violates human rights anything that calls itself creative or independent is a pretence. It is impossible for a totalitarian society to create anything with passion and imagination.

My imagination functions much better when I don't have to speak to people.

Love is based on imagination.

All the best have something in common a regard for reality an agreement to its primacy over the imagination.

You can have 10 bucks to 10 million bucks and if you got a crew imagination and a lot of people willing to turn in some work next to nothing you going to have a feature. But you can't get beyond how expensive marketing the movie is it's so crushing.

All my life I've had the privilege to make my living with my imagination and the most important thing has been to see my creative life grow. I was educated to do that and have lived accordingly.

I feel like I'm a much better person when I'm developing my imagination and my innocence and my vulnerability. I like that version of me better than the version where I'm just working on my analytical mind.

My books are elegiac in the sense that they're odes to a nation that even I sometimes think may not exist anymore except in my memory and my imagination.

I can't work completely out of my imagination. I must put my foot in a bit of truth and then I can fly free.