Understand that survival under authoritarianism often requires intelligence, caution, and indirectness.

Keep faith with memory, because forgetting makes oppression easier.

Remain skeptical of utopian projects that promise perfection at the cost of freedom.

Value ambiguity and layered meaning over simplistic political slogans.

Believe that small nations and marginalized cultures deserve a universal literary voice.

Accept exile, distance, or displacement as a way to see one’s homeland and its history more clearly.