...boredom Was As Exhausting As Backbreaking Labor.

For Anyone To Open Their Heart, They Need The Right Atmosphere, And Something To Prompt Them. For My Mother It Was Her Trip Abroad: She Was In A Very Relaxed, Understanding Environment. I Was Very Sympathetic Towards Her.

I Was Not Allowed To Take Notes But My Friend And I Memorised Those Two And A Half Pages. Most People Talked To Me Because Of The Warning. They Knew This Book Was Not Going To Be The Official Line.

When He Asked My Grandmother If She Would Mind Being Poor, She Said She Would Be Happy Just To Have Her Daughter And Himself: 'if You Have Love, Even Plain Water Is Sweet.

While I Was Writing Wild Swans I Thought The Famine Was The Result Of Economic Mismanagement But During The Research I Realised That It Was Something More Sinister.

What Has Marked Chinese Society Is Its Level Of Cruelty, Not Just Revolutions And Wars. We Ought To Reject It Totally, Otherwise In Another Upheaval There Will Be Further Cruelty.