Quotes from Xinran

No one likes crying, but tears water our souls.

Everybody says women are like water. I think it's because water is the source of life, and it adapts itself to its environment. Like women, water also gives of itself wherever it goes to nurture life....

The more you read, the more you want to know, and so the more questions you have.

I received no praise for the rescue of this girl, only criticism for "moving the troops about and stirring up the people" and wasting the radio station's time and money. I was shaken by these complaints. A young girl had been in danger and yet going to her rescue was seen as "exhausting the people and draining the treasury". Just what was a woman's life worth in China?

The way we understand both our present and our future depends on what we have lived through.

No matter how revolutionary people were, he said, they could not live without books. Without books, we would not understand the world; without books, we could not develop; without books, nature could not serve humanity.

Just as books are read one word at a time, roads are taken one step at a time.

While interviewing at the Hunan women's prison:) 'I have lived with several men, and let them amuse themselves with me. Because of that, I have been sent to two labour reeducation camps and been sentenced to prison twice. (...) When people curse me for having no shame, I don't get angry. All the Chinese care about is "face", but they don't understand how their faces are linked to the rest of their bodies.

Writing is a kind of repository and can help create a space for the accommodation of new thoughts and feelings. If you don't write these stories down, your heart will be filled up and broken by them.

Xinran, do you know that it is the really bad women who are the lucky ones? I believe the saying "Money makes men bad; badness makes women money.

Life starts in nature and returns to nature.

Writing can be a source of strength -Wang Liang

Mentre scrivo queste righe a Sydney, una splendida coppia di pappagalli verdi con il petto arancione è accovacciata sul tetto dell'edificio accanto e sta nutrendo il proprio cucciolo. Se gli uccelli possono provare un simile sentimento e non abbandonare mai le loro creature, com'è possibile che degli esseri umani rinuncino ripetutamente ai loro figli?

No one like crying, but tears water our souls. So, perhaps my thanks should be to allow you to cry for the Chinese women in my books...

Never think of a man as a tree whose shade you can rest in. Women are just fertiliser, rotting away to make the tree strong . . . There is no real love. The couples who appear loving stay together for personal gain, whether for money, power or influence.

Just what are women, exactly? Should men be classed in the same species as women? Why are they so different? Books and films may say it is better to be a woman, but I cannot believe it. I have never felt it to be true, and I never will.

Men want a woman who is a virtuous wife, a good mother, and can do all the housework like a maid. Outside the home, she should be attractive and cultivated, and be a credit to him. In bed, she must be a nymphomaniac. What is more, Chinese men also need their women to manage their finances and earn a lot of money, so they can mingle with the rich and powerful. Modern

When you walk into your memories, you are opening a door to the past; the road within has many branches, and the route is different every time

Uma família sem sentimentos ou sentimentos sem uma família. As condições de vida obrigam os jovens a fazer do emprego e da habitação os principais pré-requisitos para o casamento. Seus pais, que viveram a turbulência das mudanças políticas, fizeram da segurança e da estabilidade os alicerces sobre os quais uma família deve ser construída.

Por mais revolucionárias que sejam, disse, as pessoas não podem viver sem livros. Sem livros não compreenderíamos o mundo; sem livros não poderíamos desenvolver; sem livros, a natureza não pode servir a humanidade.

A vida toda eu tivera vontade de que ela (mãe) me abraçasse. Quando eu era criança, ela não me abraçou nem beijou uma única vez.

Guardei o segredo da Catadora de Lixo e nunca contei ao filho que ela passara um longo tempo acompanhando seus movimentos. Mas nunca mais fui à casa dele, pois a Catadora de Lixo, cuja memória eu prezo muito, nunca atravessou sequer a soleira daquela casa. Embora ele parecesse tão abastado, ela é que era realmente rica.

This generation possessed freedom and material wealth their elders could only dream of, and they looked for the miracle of love in the void between Chinese and Western culture. They created idealised versions of themselves on the internet, and pushed the boundaries of what they thought love could be. But as this generation grew accustomed to the loneliness of living without brothers and sisters, the family could no longer be considered the backbone of Chinese culture.

The chicken in the coop has grain but the soup pot is near; the wild crane has none but its world is vast.