"Is historical writing to be addressed to a small group of academics or is it to be communicated to the educated world at large? I stand with the latter proposition, that history books are communicable to and accessible by the educated public at large. The ultimate task and obligation of a historian is to bring this kind of illumination to as wide an audience as possible."

"The test of the moral quality of a civilization is its treatment of the weak and powerless."

"My main concern was to write a novel that uses all of this stuff that is accessible, to write a novel that deals with white racism and Chinese American history and the real Chinese fairy tales and the…"

"When I was young, I was told only criminals went to prison... did we really commit crimes? Were we really criminals?... There is a big gap in terms of gender inequality and social justice.... If we re…"

"I suspect that a major goal of the reform campaign is to make the work of a teacher so degrading and insulting that the dignified and the truly educated teachers will simply leave while they still ret…"