Mo Yan is the Chinese equivalent of the Soviet Russian apparatchik writer Mikhail Sholokhov: a patsy of the regime.

When in doubt tell the truth.

I would probably have more in common with a whale than with a bourgeois married couple employed at worthy institutions that I would wipe from the face of the earth if it was given to me to do so.

When they call the roll in the Senate, the Senators do not know whether to answer 'Present' or 'Not guilty.'

Hell is an outrage on humanity. When you tell me that your deity made you in his image, I reply that he must have been very ugly.