When literature exists, perhaps we do not notice how important it is, but when it does not exist, our lives become coarsened and brutal. For this reason, I am proud of my profession, but also aware of its importance.

Extremely prolific Mo Yan wrote Life and Death Are Wearing Me Out in only 42 days. " He concluded that "For a writer the best way to speak is by writing. Using ridicule and sarcasm Mo Yan attacks history and its falsifications as well as deprivation and political hypocrisy.

news magazine TIME as "one of the most famous oft-banned and widely pirated of all Chinese writers" and by Jim Leach as the Chinese answer to Franz Kafka or Joseph Heller. He has been referred by Donald Morrison of U.