Ai Weiwei Quotes

A land that rejects the truth, barricades itself against change and lacks the spirit of freedom is hopeless.

Ai Weiwei

• Truth
• Freedom

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Quotes to Explore

• Like many writers, I started by writing short stories. I needed to learn how to write and stories are the most practical way to do this, and less soul-destroying than working your way through a lengthy novel and then discovering it's rubbish.

  

  Kate Atkinson
  • Writing
  • Soul
  • Learn

• I will never sign to a major record label again. If, by some mega fluke, a record of mine looked like it might break big, I'd try and do it via an indie or somehow license it. I'm not having my music owned by those corporate bastards again.

  

  Malcolm Wilson
  • Music
  • Try
  • Again

• All my life I had feared to-morrow, until I decided to have faith and to live to-day in courage.

  

  Vash Young
  • Life
  • Live
  • Faith

• You don't go into politics unless you want to win.

  

  Rand Paul
  • Want
  • Politics
  • Win

• I believe in the free enterprise system.

  

  Ralph Norman
  • Believe
  • Free
  • I Believe

• This flattery has been rather slow in coming. I think all of sudden late in life now I'm getting some credit for what I've done. Which is gratifying, but it's kind of a little late.

  

  Jack Vance
  • Life
  • Done
  • Think

• The crisis of black politics can only be resolved through the development of multiclass, multiracial, progressive political structures.

  

  Manning Marable
  • Political
  • Black
  • Politics

• What people don't appreciate, when they picture Terminator-style automatons striding triumphantly across a mountain of human skulls, is how hard it is to keep your footing on something as unstable as a mountain of human skulls. Most humans probably couldn't manage it, and they've had a lifetime of practice at walking without falling over.

  

  Randall Munroe
  • People
  • Style
  • Practice

• It should be no surprise that religion in the non-western world has failed to disappear under the juggernaut of industrial capitalism, or that liberal democracy finds its most dedicated saboteurs among the new middle classes.

  

  Pankaj Mishra
  • World
  • Democracy
  • Religion

• People say you should go out at the top but I was enjoying my football so much. Robbie Fowler's exactly the same: he's not playing for money any more, he's playing for enjoyment. Why go out at the top if it's going to make you miserable? I just wanted to play as long as I could.

  

  Ian Rush
  • People
  • Long
  • Money

• It's hard because people often don't recognise shyness; they think it's just someone being rude. I have had to work to overcome that, especially if I'm meeting my readers at author events, because I don't want them to think I'm snooty or rude.

  

  Karin Slaughter
  • People
  • Work
  • Think

• Sometimes I sit down to dinner with people and I realize there is a massive military machine surrounding us, trying to kill the people I'm having dinner with.

  

  Rachel Corrie
  • People
  • Trying
  • Military

• All Hollywood corrupts; and absolute Hollywood corrupts absolutely.

  

  Edmund Wilson
  • Hollywood
  • Corrupts

• I am proud of where I came from, and I am proud of what I've been able to achieve through hard work and perseverance. And I guarantee you that anyone who tries to say otherwise hasn't walked a day in my shoes.

  

  Wendy Davis
  • Work
  • Day
  • Proud

• I love Sylvia Plath and Anne Sexton. I also love more cerebral poets like H.D. and Emily Dickinson. My parents subscribed to a monthly poetry periodical, and as a teenager I was introduced to Denise Levertov, who was an influence.

  

  Francesca Lia Block
  • Parents
  • Like
  • Poetry

• Public appearances are a headache. I hold mine down to a minimum.

  

  Jack Nicklaus
  • Down
  • Mine
  • Appearances

• The soul can split the sky in two and let the face of God shine through.

  

  Edna St. Vincent Millay
  • God
  • Soul
  • Sky

• Food is not a means toward resolution. It can't cure heartbreak or solve untenable dilemmas.

  

  Kate Christensen
  • Food
  • Resolution
  • Heartbreak

• Sometimes it seems like there's more footnotes than text. This isn't something we're proud of, and over time we'd like to see our footnotes steadily shrink.

  

  Barry Diller
  • Time
  • Proud
  • Sometimes

• Personally I don't think solving corruption is such a big problem.

  

  Imran Khan
  • Think
  • Problem
  • Corruption

• The erosion of personal freedom and liberty as a result of federal policy and legislation is alarming.

  

  Derrick Grayson
  • Freedom

• The width of a line may present the idea of infinity. An epigram may contain a world. In the same way, a small picture format may be much more living, much more leavening, stirring, awakening, than square yards of wall space.

  

  Hans Hofmann
  • World
  • May
  • Small

• I would like to say that whites jumped right behind Malcolm X. They’re makin’ a book about him, it’s required readin’ in all colleges now, and they’re makin’ a movie about him, and projectin’ him as the leader and if you read his book and see the movie that’s comin’ out, it’ll make you hate Elijah Mohammed and the Muslims. Mainly, this is done to turn the black people against the real leader and I’d like to say that this is the way white people rule.

  

  Muhammad Ali
  • Movie
  • Leader
  • Colleges

• A land that rejects the truth, barricades itself against change and lacks the spirit of freedom is hopeless.

  

  Ai Weiwei
  • Truth
  • Freedom