Anchee Min

My goal was to do anything that would lead to a job. I know that writing would not lead to a job. It's too fancy for me. My biggest goal was to be an office receptionist, answer phones. I didn't expect to go beyond that. ”

To be able to do art, it was a luxury to me. ”

Of course I have the license to make up things, but I think a lot of what's written about China is misleading, and most Americans don't know much about China, in-depth, even though China is such a crucial business partner, rival, whatever. ”

No matter how American I become, I'm considered part of the Chinese community by my own family. ”

There are a lot of things that immigrants, especially Chinese-Americans, want to share with their children, but there are a lot of things they don't want to share. ”

The self was a very strange concept to me until I came to America, and my child was born with that entitlement, and that just thrilled me. ”

There have been 50 or 60 books written about Empress Orchid, but none of them bothered to really examine the period in China when she lived. I was taught that she was evil; it's in all the textbooks. ”