I was born in Suzhou, a city not very far from Shanghai. It’s a very interesting town – there is a long artist’s tradition there, especially during the Ming and Ching dynasties, which produced many, many scholars and painters and so forth. That’s where my family lived for 600, 700 years.

Painters have often taught writers how to see. And once you’ve had that experience, you see differently.

Some painters transform the sun into a yellow spot, others transform a yellow spot into the sun.

There are painters who transform the sun to a yellow spot, but there are others who with the help of their art and their intelligence, transform a yellow spot into sun.