“We are living in a very complex society. It puts me in a complex frame of thinking.”

“Everyone wants an iPhone, but it would be impossible to design an iPhone in China because it's not a product; it's an understanding of human nature.”

“The 'Bird's Nest' National Stadium, which I helped to conceive, is designed to embody the Olympic spirit of 'fair competition.' It tells people that freedom is possible but needs fairness, courage ...”

“A nation that has no music and no fairytales is a tragedy.”

“This nation is notorious for its ability to make or fake anything cheaply. 'Made-in-China' goods now fill homes around the world. But our giant country has a small problem. We can't manufacture the...”

“Police in China can do whatever they want; after 81 days in arbitrary detention you clearly realise that they don't have to obey their own laws. In a society like this there is no negotiation, no d...”

“That story, as all good stories, planted a seed in my soul and never left me.”

“The wilderness is a seed of words.”

“Money is the seed of money, and the first guinea is sometimes more difficult to acquire than the second million.”

“The motions of the comets are exceedingly regular, and they observe the same laws as the motions of the planets, but they differ from the motions of vortices in every particular and are often contr...”

“Innumerable spirits and souls, when spread out through the same space, do not interfere with each other such that the diffusion of one would affect the diffusion of an infinity of others.”

“Mike Watt and I had the same teacher. Mr. Tanaka.”