The idea of being a character who is kind of isolated, I can relate to that.
Everybody contributes something to the system, and everybody suffers from the system.
No one is immune from either taking the wrong action or not taking action at all, but the sense that something is completely out of a person's control is stronger in China.
Some people in China don't look at freedom of speech as an abstract ideal, but more as a means to an end.
In China, your freedom is always limited, but this limitation applies to almost everyone. If someone does injustice to you, though, you have to find a way to avenge yourself - even by illegal measures. In a sense, injustice is more personal. This idea has always been in Chinese history. I think we read about freedom of speech, or lack of freedom of speech, in China so often. But I don't think people here in America think about how justice, or the idea of justice, is so important in a Chinese setting. It's probably more important than freedom of speech in the Chinese mindset at this moment.
If I didn't self-censor, I would be in jail, and then I wouldn't be effective at all.
There is a certain amount of politeness here in America, which is probably more than just politeness.
With all of their benefits, and there are many, one of the things I regret about e-books is that they have taken away the necessity of trawling foreign bookshops or the shelves of holiday houses to find something to read. I've come across gems and stinkers that way, and both can be fun.
Art and life go together. I have to have a life filled with experiences to make art, and I have to have art around me to live well.
About what one can not speak, one must remain silent.
Basically, me and Ed Sheeran are kind of Twitter friends - well, I say that. He probably just thinks I'm weird.