“Inspiration comes from many places — experiences, places, people, books, and the work of other artists.”

“You must find another reason to work, other than the desire for success or recognition. It must come from another place.”

“All artists, whether they know it or not create from a place of inner stillness, a place of no mind.”

“If you start [in book] with telling people what they are supposed to feel and what they are supposed to experience it simply doesn’t work. Because it really has to come from the reader…”

“Introspection is a devouring monster. You have to feed it with much material, much experience, many people, many places, many loves, many creations, and then it ceases feeding on you.”

“But people like to say, Oh, it's in the blood. But art comes from nowhere. It comes from a vague, scary place. It's scary because you don't know when it's coming or if it will ever come again. It's this Other.”

“That books do not take the place of experience, and that learning is no substitute for genius, are two kindred phenomena; their common ground is that the abstract can never take the place of the perceptive.”

“Many people have fled from our China (wo Zhongguo) to your place”

“Music is one of those things that brings great joy to people, singing is a sort of unifier of people, no matter what political place or original place you come from.”

“‎"Matter flows from place to place, and momentarily comes together to be you. Some people find that thought disturbing; I find the reality thrilling.”