I really want to do something in Europe. With a small movie, it can be an interesting challenge. But I have to get the right project. I don't think it's so important to go to Hollywood. All that trash that comes out of there! I don't want to do that.

Zhang Ziyi

When two people first meet, they can only have a very ordinary kind of friendship. But when you begin to understand each other, when you get close to them, you discover that you're suddenly eager to know him or her even better.

Zhang Ziyi

There's nothing in Chinese culture that is an equivalent of the geisha. It's so different, so special to Japan.

Zhang Ziyi

For myself I don't like the geisha look. It's like a mask.

Zhang Ziyi

From beginning to end I worried that Ang Lee wouldn't be satisfied with my work. So I worked as hard as I could to earn his trust, because you only get a chance like this once.

Zhang Ziyi

Yes. Otherwise I could have done a lot of Hollywood movies. After Crouching Tiger I got a lot of offers, but I turned them down because they were all victim roles - poor girls sold to America to be a wife or whatever. I know I have the ability to go deeper, to take on more original roles than that.

Zhang Ziyi

I want, through my roles, to express the parts in the hearts of Chinese women that they feel unable to let out.

Zhang Ziyi

When I watch a movie for the first few times I'm usually thinking about where I was in a given scene, who was next to me, what we were doing etc. But after I've gotten through all of this, when I'm really watching the film itself, then I get moved.

Zhang Ziyi

Actually I ran away from school when I was 13. No one could find me, and the police were called. I was just hiding in a little thicket of grass at my school, and went to sleep.

Zhang Ziyi

I'm not really interested in politics, because I think it's just too removed from my own life. If there's a war, though, or a disaster, I want to know what's happening.

Zhang Ziyi

Ordinarily if an actor gets chosen for the lead in a film, he or she has already built up a repertoire, and everyone knows what he or she is capable of.

Zhang Ziyi

We're still working out the details, but I'd be delighted to do the film. The problem at the moment is my busy schedule. Shooting on this film has been extended by a month, but I need to be in the U.S. by Dec. 20.

Zhang Ziyi

Absolutely not, because in acting I've found a domain that suits me perfectly. And that is so utterly rare.

Zhang Ziyi

I wanted to escape so badly. But of course I knew I couldn't just give up and leave school. It was only when I heard my mom's voice that I came out of my hiding place.

Zhang Ziyi

Wanting to be in a Western film won't get me very far. Unless the opportunity arose, it doesn't matter how much I want to be in one. But if an opportunity did arise, no actor would pass it up.

Zhang Ziyi

There was one very special scene at the end of the film. My character, Zhao Di, has been sick. She wakes up and her mother tells her that the man she loves has come back from the city and had spent the day by her bedside.

Zhang Ziyi

The atmosphere at my school was very competitive. Young girls were competing with each other every day for status, for leadership, for the affection of the teachers. I hated it.

Zhang Ziyi

China's cinema has been rising for some time; it has more exposure, so my chances of becoming internationally known are better. But the first thing I have to do is learn English. If I can grasp the language, then perhaps I can think about the U.S.

Zhang Ziyi

I've discovered that I value simplicity above all in dressing. I don't like anything I wear to be too complicated or fussy.

Zhang Ziyi

I always think it's really hard if you are Asian or Chinese to be really in Hollywood. There are not so many really great characters for you.

Zhang Ziyi

I suspect people always thought I had a boyfriend, so nobody came after me.

Zhang Ziyi