If one wants to get a boat ride, one must be near the river.

- Anchee Min

lack of will power leads to more failure than lack of intelligence or ability.

- Anchee Min

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

- Anchee Min

I was happy not to be in his place. He could command my death, but not his. But then, what kind of power was his? He was a prisoner of himself.

- Anchee Min

If you can't go back to your mother's womb, you'd better learn to be a good fighter.

- Anchee Min

Do you know who Karl Marx is? He is this strange little man, long dead, who lived his narrow little life, and somehow managed by the power of his way…

- Anchee Min

When Chinese get together - what's buried stays buried. We don't even discuss our embarrassing early days struggling in Chicago.

- Anchee Min

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.

- Anchee Min

I think about giving up. I almost do.

- Anchee Min