Hans Holbein, Lijia Zhang, Laurent Binet, Alec Ash

Instead, Mia indulged in her own private rebellion. Each punk night out was an act of resistance against the milky-white Lolitas around her. She knew she wanted to make a career in the fashion world, but was in no rush. Every day she felt excited—at times smug—to be a Tsinghua student, cream of the crop. And at night she escaped to the gigs and the bars, staying up with Setlight until the sun rose. All she wanted was to decide her own future, independently. It wasn’t easy, but it was worth rebelling for.
Ash, Alec. Wish Lanterns: Young Lives in New China

“The most important thing creators do is work. The most important thing they don’t do is quit.”
“Unfulfilled passion creates a cavity between our present and our potential — a void that can drip with destruction and despair.”
“The best artists, scientists, engineers, inventors, entrepreneurs, and other creators are the ones who keep taking steps by finding new problems, new solutions, and then new problems again.”
“Creating is not extraordinary, even if its results sometimes are. Creation is human. It is all of us. It is everybody.”
Ashton, Kevin: How to Fly a Horse: The Secret History of Creation, Invention, and Discovery 


天有不测风云, 人有旦夕祸福
In Nature, There Are Unexpected Storms, and in Life Unpredictable Vicissitudes
Zhang, Lijia. Lotus: A Novel