Red Dust Quotes

“Everything I was I carry with me, everything I will be lies waiting on the road ahead.”
― Ma Jian, Red Dust: A Path Through China

“I will not let a political party tell me how to live, when to die or what to believe in. Our souls are linked to the universe, but we can never see heaven, because our flesh ties us to the earth and the people around us. But when the people around you have lost their will to be free, then earth becomes a hell.”
― Ma Jian, Red Dust: A Path Through China

“I don't know where I am going, I just know I had to leave. Everything I was I carry with me, everything I will be lies waiting on the road ahead.”
― Ma Jian, Red Dust: A Path Through China

“There are still many white mountains to cross, but I am on my way home.”
― Ma Jian, Red Dust: A Path Through China

“Everything I was I carry with me, everything I will be lies waiting on the road ahead. I want to think on my feet, live on the run.”
― Ma Jian, Red Dust: A Path Through China

“If there is road in front of me, I will follow it. I don't mind where it goes, as long as it takes me forward.”
― Ma Jian, Red Dust: A Path Through China

“I know now that no path is solitary, we all tread across other people's beginnings and ends.”
― Ma Jian, Red Dust: A Path Through China

“When the people around you have lost their will to be free, then earth becomes a hell.”
― Ma Jian, Red Dust: A Path Through China

“It is only when you take control of your life that you know you are alive.”
― Ma Jian, Red Dust: A Path Through China

“no path is solitary, we all tread across other people’s beginnings and ends.”
― Ma Jian, Red Dust

“It’s easy to be kind when you are poor. I’ve met a lot of kind people in my travels, but the cost of their kindness is exclusion from the outside world. As soon as a road is built, the kindness vanishes.”
― Ma Jian, Red Dust

“When people have no sense of self, relationships are just temporary distractions from the inner emptiness and fall apart at the first obstacle. My”
― Ma Jian, Red Dust

“My real name is not Li Chengyuan, it’s Li Aidang. My parents were murdered in the Cultural Revolution because of the names they gave to my brothers and me. Being the youngest child I could have stayed in the city, but I knew it would be safer to leave.’ ‘Aidang – love the Party. What’s wrong with that?’ ‘My brothers were called Aiguo and Aimin. Get it? Love the Guomindang!’ He smiled bitterly. ‘My parents had no idea, you see, never occurred to them. Guo-min-dang.”
― Ma Jian, Red Dust

“If the sages have managed to transcend the fetters of samsara, why do they feel the need to leave these mementoes behind?”
― Ma Jian, Red Dust

“Families destroyed by Mao Zedong hang posters of him on their walls. Because they all know Chinese history changes as frequently as the Yellow River floods its banks.”
― Ma Jian, Red Dust

“The Chinese alive today are reincarnations of torturers. The wronged souls of the past will haunt us for ever. We must pay for the sins of our ancestors.”
― Ma Jian, Red Dust

“When man’s spirit is in chains, he loses all respect for nature.”
― Ma Jian, Red Dust