Ai Weiwei Quotes
We see plenty of artistic work that reflects superficial social conditions, but very little work that questions fundamental values.
Quotes to Explore
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I identified in a very deep way with the individuals I was writing about because the theme that runs through this story is of extraordinary hardship and the will to overcome it.
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I went to this little performing arts school in downtown Phoenix. You had to dance or act, and everyone sang in choir. I started out playing the saxophone, but I always wanted to be in an orchestra. That was a dream as a kid, and there aren't a lot of saxophones in an orchestra.
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I know you can be up one minute and drop the next, so I'm trying to maintain a steady course so I can have some longevity.
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Each book tends to have its own identity rather than the author's. It speaks from itself rather than you. Each book is unlike the others because you are not bringing the same voice to every book. I think that keeps you alive as a writer.
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The best philosophers were not academics, but had another job, so their philosophy was not corrupted by careerism.
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If you live in rock and roll, as I do, you see the reality of sex, of male lust and women being aroused by male lust. It attracts women. It doesn't repel them.
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No 27-year-old has the experience to run a company that does a quarter of a billion dollars a year in sales.
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I am a contradiction myself. I'm always looking for something that scares me because when I'm not scared, I'm not stimulated.
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I pick up the details that drive the organization insane. But sweating the details is more important than anything else.
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The Sino-Indian War in 1962 has fundamentally shaped and distorted Indian attitudes towards China. It also obscured a great deal of what has happened in China since 1962.
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I have a very rich and wonderful personal life, and at its core are my sons.
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Half the time, people will be abusing me on Twitter, and half the time, somebody will be praising me. So either it will go to my head, or I will take it to my heart. So better I stay away from it.
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If there is a meaning in life at all, then there must be a meaning in suffering. Suffering is an ineradicable part of life, even as fate and death. Without suffering and death, human life cannot be complete.
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I work all day, do research, sketch my ideas, prepare for performances.
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Publishing for me is a business, not an ideology.
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Society can overlook murder, adultery or swindling; it never forgives preaching of a new gospel.
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It is our duty, as parents and as teachers, to give all children the space to build their emotional strength and provide a strong foundation for their future.
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It's just difficult to see that people want to be like the actors and the performers and the politicians who are - who they see all the time, but the people that are probably having the most fun are the writers and the directors and the producers and the scientists, right, the people in the back that are getting to do the creative process.
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I like my hands. They do most of the talking.
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Find someone you can jam with. That's a big deal. When you play with someone else, you gotta work together to get the thing started and in time, working and in the groove.
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Pauline kept a scrapbook into which she pasted important articles that she had cut out of the newspapers. These were about the courageous deeds that had been done by people even if they only had one leg or couldn't see or had been dropped on their heads when they were babies. 'It's to make me brave,' she'd explained to Annika.
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A person is always startled when he hears himself seriously called an old man for the first time.
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If you're a beach person or a golfer, Key West is not for you. Most of the sand has been imported, and the water is shallow until you've waded far out, and all the way the sea floor is covered with yucky algae and sea grass.
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We see plenty of artistic work that reflects superficial social conditions, but very little work that questions fundamental values.
