I'm terrible at collaborating with people; nothing ever ends up coming out good.

I like guitar. It just turned out that it's the instrument I learned to play. I have a lot of respect for it, and I'm learning more and more every day. For me, the classic band setup - guitars, drums, bass - will stay fresh forever. I don't know. I'm still into it.

Neil Young is the prime example, the grand goal, if you will. He's still shredding, and he never lost his credibility.

If people are talking about you, that's great. You start making more money, that's great. You get to go to weird places, that's great. The music industry is weird, especially with the Internet. People are calling you all kinds of weird stuff, like 'jangly.'

I have always thought that the place where you sleep or the place you share with your partner should be separate from the place where you write. The domestic rituals and details somehow kill the imagination. They kill the demon in me.

Whatever China I'd been born into, I would probably still have become a painter - I loved sketching portraits as a child, and began art classes at the age 7. But if China hadn't been under Maoist rule, I might never have become a writer.

Music helps me immeasurably in the writing process.

I know kids who say they have nothing to do and then go plop themselves down in front of the television to watch a movie or play Nintendo or Xbox. I think there is nothing better for killing creativity and imagination.