者到她家采访，起初她还很耐心地回答提问，但很快便不胜其烦，跑到县城里她儿子家躲起来了。姑姑确实是我写《蛙》时的模特，但小说中的姑姑，与现实生活中的姑姑有着天壤之别。小说中的姑姑专横跋扈，有时简直像个女匪，现实中的姑姑和善开朗，是一个标准的贤妻良母。现实中的姑姑晚年生活幸福美满，小说中的姑姑到了晚年却因为心灵的巨大痛苦患上了失眠症，身披黑袍，像个幽灵一样在暗夜中游荡。我感谢姑姑的宽容，她没有因为我在小说中把她写成那样而生气;我也十分敬佩我姑姑的明智，她正确地理解了小说中人物与现实中人物的复杂关系。
after my mother died, in the midst of almost crippling grief, i decided to write a novel for her. big breasts and wide hips is that novel. once my plan took shape, i was burning with such emotion that i completed a draft of half a million words in only eighty-three days. in big breasts and wide hips i shamelessly used material associated with my mother's actual experience, but the fictional mother's emotional state is either a total fabrication or a composite of many of northeast gaomi township's mothers. though i wrote \dedication page, the novel was really written for all
mothers everywhere, evidence, perhaps, of my overweening ambition, in much the same way as i hope to make tiny northeast gaomi township a microcosm of china, even of the whole world.
母亲去世后，我悲痛万分，决定写一部书献给她。这就是那本《丰乳肥臀》。因为胸有成竹，因为情感充盈，仅用了83 天，我便写出了这部长达50 万字的小说的初稿。在《丰乳肥臀》这本书里，我肆无忌惮地使用了与我母亲的亲身经历有关的素材，但书中的母亲情感方面的经历，则是虚构或取材于高密东北乡诸多母亲的经历。在这本书的卷前语上，我写下了“献给母亲在天之灵”的话，但这本书，实际上是献给天下母亲的，这是我狂妄的野心，就像我希望把小小的“高密东北乡”写成中国乃至世界的缩影一样。 the process of creation is unique to every writer. each of my novels differs from the others in terms of plot and guiding inspiration. some, such as \transparent carrot,\were born in dreams, while others, like the garlic ballads have their origin in actual events. whether the source of a work is a dream or real life, only if it is integrated with individual experience can it be imbued with individuality, be populated with typical characters molded by lively
detail, employ richly evocative language, and boast a well crafted structure. here i must point out that in the garlic ballads i introduced a real-life storyteller and singer in one of the novel's most important roles. i wish i hadn't used his real name, though his words and actions were made up. this is a recurring phenomenon with me. i'll start out using characters' real names in order to achieve a sense of intimacy, and after the work is finished, it will seem too late to change those names. this has led to people who see their names in my novels going to my father to vent their displeasure. he always apologizes in my place, but then urges them not to take such things so seriously. he'll say: \first sentence in red sorghum, 'my father, a bandit's offspring,' didn't upset me, so why should you be unhappy?\my greatest challenges come with writing novels that deal with social realities, such as the garlic ballads, not because i'm afraid of being openly critical of the darker aspects of society, but because heated emotions and anger allow politics to suppress literature and transform a novel into reportage of a social event. as a member of society, a novelist is
entitled to his own stance and viewpoint; but when he is writing he must take a humanistic stance, and write accordingly. only then can literature not just originate in events, but transcend them, not just show concern for politics but be greater than politics. 作家的创作过程各有特色，我每本书的构思与灵感触发也都不尽相同。有的小说起源于梦境，譬如《透明的红萝卜》，有的小说则发端于现实生活中发生的事件——譬如《天堂蒜薹之歌》。但无论是起源于梦境还是发端于现实，最后都必须和个人的经验相结合，才有可能变成一部具有鲜明个性的，用无数生动细节塑造出了典型人物的、语言丰富多彩、结构匠心独运的文学作品。有必要特别提及的是，在《天堂蒜薹之歌》中，我让一个真正的说书人登场，并在书中扮演了十分重要的角色。我十分抱歉地使用了这个说书人真实姓名，当然，他在书中的所有行为都是虚构。在我的写作中，出现过多次这样的现象，写作之初，我使用他们的真实姓名，希望能借此获得一种亲近感，但作品完成之后，我想为他们改换姓名时却感到已经不可能了，因此也发生过与我小说中人物同名者找到我父亲发泄不满的事情，我父亲替我向他们道歉，但同时又开导他们不要当真。我父亲说：“他在《红高粱》中，第一句就说‘我父亲这个土匪种’，我都不在意你们还在意什么?”我在写作《天堂蒜薹之歌》这类逼近社会
现实的小说时，面对着的最大问题，其实不是我敢不敢对社会上的黑暗现象进行批评，而是这燃烧的激情和愤怒会让政治压倒文学，使这部小说变成一个社会事件的纪实报告。小说家是社会中人，他自然有自己的立场和观点，但小说家在写作时，必须站在人的立场上，把所有的人都当做人来写。只有这样，文学才能发端事件但超越事件，关心政治但大于政治。
possibly because i've lived so much of my life in difficult circumstances, i think i have a more profound understanding of life. i know what real courage is, and i understand true compassion. i know that nebulous terrain exists in the hearts and minds of every person, terrain that cannot be adequately characterized in simple terms of right and wrong or good and bad, and this vast territory is where a writer gives free rein to his talent. so long as the work correctly and vividly describes this nebulous, massively contradictory terrain, it will inevitably transcend politics and be endowed with literary excellence. prattling on and on about my own work must be annoying, but my life and works are inextricably linked, so if i don't talk about my work, i don't know what else to say. i hope you are in