I Believe That The Power Of Literature

To Become Self-aware, People Must Be Allowed To Hear A Plurality Of Opinions And Then Make Up Their Own Minds. They Must Be Allowed To Say, Write And Publish Whatever They Want. Freedom Of Expression Is The Most Basic, But Fundamental, Right. Without It, Human Beings Are Reduced To Automatons.

In February Of This Year I Returned To China To Research My Next Book. The Authorities Know About The Novels Of Mine That Have Been Published In The West, Including The Latest One, Beijing Coma, About A Student Shot In Tiananmen Square, But So Far Have Allowed Me To Return.

I Will Not Let A Political Party Tell Me How To Live, When To Die Or What To Believe In. Our Souls Are Linked To The Universe, But We Can Never See Heaven, Because Our Flesh Ties Us To The Earth And The People Around Us. But When The People Around You Have Lost Their Will To Be Free, Then Earth Becomes A Hell.

In 1989, I Was On Tiananmen Square With The Students, Living In Their Makeshift Tents And Joining Their Jubilant Singing Of The Internationale. In The Two Decades Since, Each Time That I Have Gone Back, Visions From Those Days Seem To Return With Increasing Persistence.

I Wanted To Analyse And Understand How The Chinese People Could Have Their Lives So Crushed By Fear.