Ai Weiwei Quotes

We see plenty of artistic work that reflects superficial social conditions, but very little work that questions fundamental values.

Ai Weiwei

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Quotes to Explore

• When I started out back in Louisville, there was Harry Collins. He was my first teacher. He saw that I was so obsessed with magic that he taught me the love of magic.

  

  Lance Burton
  • Love
  • Teacher
  • Magic

• 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.

  

  Laura Hillenbrand
  • Writing
  • Deep
  • Story

• 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.

  

  Kacy Hill
  • School
  • Dream
  • Dance

• 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.

  

  Orlando Bloom
  • Up
  • Trying
  • Know

• 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.

  

  E. L. Doctorow
  • Book
  • Voice
  • Identity

• The best philosophers were not academics, but had another job, so their philosophy was not corrupted by careerism.

  

  Nassim Nicholas Taleb
  • Job
  • Best
  • Philosophy

• 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.

  

  Camille Paglia
  • Women
  • Live
  • Reality

• No 27-year-old has the experience to run a company that does a quarter of a billion dollars a year in sales.

  

  Calvin Klein
  • Experience
  • Year
  • Sales

• I am a contradiction myself. I'm always looking for something that scares me because when I'm not scared, I'm not stimulated.

  

  Yasmine Al Masri
  • Contradiction
  • Scares
  • Stimulated

• I pick up the details that drive the organization insane. But sweating the details is more important than anything else.

  

  Indra Nooyi
  • Up
  • Important
  • Organization

• 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.

  

  Pankaj Mishra
  • Great
  • War
  • China

• I have a very rich and wonderful personal life, and at its core are my sons.

  

  Kate Mulgrew
  • Life
  • Rich
  • Personal

• 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.

  

  Ranbir Kapoor
  • People
  • Time
  • Heart

• 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.

  

  Viktor E. Frankl
  • Life
  • Death
  • Suffering

• I work all day, do research, sketch my ideas, prepare for performances.

  

  Lady Gaga
  • Work
  • Day
  • Research

• Publishing for me is a business, not an ideology.

  

  Barry Eisler
  • Business
  • Me
  • Ideology

• Society can overlook murder, adultery or swindling; it never forgives preaching of a new gospel.

  

  Edmund Burke
  • Society
  • Never
  • New

• 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.

  

  Kate Middleton
  • Children
  • Future
  • Parents

• DIRECTIONS FOR USING: For THINKING:-Wind the Clockwork Man under his left arm, (marked No. 1). For SPEAKING:-Wind the Clockwork Man under his right arm, (marked No. 2). For WALKING and ACTION:-Wind Clockwork Man in the middle of his back, (marked No. 3). N. B.-This Mechanism is guaranteed to work perfectly for a thousand years.

  

  L. Frank Baum
  • Work
  • Thinking
  • Action

• I didn't just work at a hardware store. I went to college for a second, and I worked there on breaks or during the summer.

  

  Kiara Saulters
  • Work
  • College
  • Summer

• Prince is my favorite ever. I've liked Prince since... It's been a really long time. Even in junior high. I used to only like punk for a while, and I had all these rules for what kinds of groups were cool, and who was not cool, but as soon as I saw this one Prince video... It just broke all those rules. I was like, 'I love this no matter what.'

  

  Fred Armisen
  • Time
  • Long
  • High

• I have been brought up open-minded. If I didn't know any people from other countries, I'd think everyone was evil based on news stories. But I know a lot of people, and know that there is no such thing as stark good and evil. Isn't it possible there is the same amount of evil everywhere?

  

  Marjane Satrapi
  • People
  • Up
  • Good

• The reason I can give wonder is that I feel wonder about the world: the stars, a tree, my body - everything.

  

  Doug Henning
  • World
  • Wonder
  • Tree

• We see plenty of artistic work that reflects superficial social conditions, but very little work that questions fundamental values.

  

  Ai Weiwei
  • Work