“Life continues, and some mornings, weary of the noise, discouraged by the prospect of the interminable work to keep after, sickened also by the madness of the world that leaps at you from the newspaper, finally convinced that I will not be equal to it and that I will disappoint everyone—all I want to do is sit down and wait for evening. This is what I feel like, and sometimes I yield to it.”

“Sometimes I feel I do know what to believe in. Sometimes I believe in working, writing, performing, doing the work. Other times I'm full of despair and I don't even believe in that, but for some reason I will get out of bed and do something anyway, even though I don't believe in it.”

“I don't even want people to say I'm the godfather of Chinese rock music. I would like to say I'm the grandson of Chinese rock music. I want to keep doing something, I don't want to sit there and tell people what you should do. I don't like that.”

“Sometimes you seem to slip
and
don't know know what to do.
What a life…
what a life.
I keep holding on.
The heavier the load
the harder I fight.
No one
will
keep me down.
I keep holding on.
I keep holding on.
Until God decides.”

“even after all these winters, I see you sitting there, perched at the edge of sunlight, feeling like the invitation of spring”

“When I feel tired and discouraged and I lie down on the sofa, then I think of the simplest thing I can – a piece of string – and I go in it and paint it. That's the way to keep painting – to create something inside that makes you want to recreate it.”

“I want to write music. I want to sit down right now at the piano, and write a song that people will listen to and remember. And do the same thing every morning for the rest of my life.”

“I keep feeling like everyone wants me to apologize for something.”

“Sometimes I felt like I was waiting for my life to begin and more than anything, in that moment, I wanted to force some kind of beginning. I wanted things to be different than usual. I wanted to bend reality.”

“The animal I wanted
Couldn't get into the world…
I can hear it crying
When I sit like this away from life.”