Ai Weiwei Quotes
- All Quotes
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They tell us it will be about 'emotions' and 'friendship,' that it will be a night of joy. Who are they kidding?
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The most unfair things that could have happened in a society fell upon a blind man. This is something that no one can accept or explain away with any excuse. Everyone will ask: 'Do we actually have to exist in a society like this?'
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When I returned to China from the United States, I didn’t have a U.S. passport, a wife, or a university degree. From the Chinese point of view, I was a total failure.
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Later I became very involved in writing. I really enjoyed that moment of writing. People would pass around my sentences. That was a feeling I never had before. It was like a bullet out of the gun.
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What does it matter if China’s economy grows when there are no basic protections for its citizens?
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The people who control culture in China have no culture.
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Three years after the CCTV headquarters fire in Beijing in February 2009, human skeletons lie forgotten. Is anyone accountable?
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I wouldn’t say I’ve become more radical: I was born radical.
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Art is always about overcoming obstacles between the inner condition and the skill for expression.
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I think it’s a responsibility for any artist to protect freedom of expression and to use any way to extend this power.
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At midnight they can come into your room and take you away. They can put a black hood on you, take you to a secret place and interrogate you, trying to stop what you’re doing. They threaten people, your family, saying: 'Your children won’t find jobs.'
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On the Internet, people do not know each other, they don’t have common leaders, sometimes not even a common political goal. But they come together on certain issues. I think that is a miracle. It never happened in the past. Without the Internet, I would not even be Ai Weiwei today. I would just be an artist somewhere doing my shows.
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China is a society which forbids any flow of the information and freedom of speech. This is on record, so everybody should know this.
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People often say I started to become too outspoken after a certain period. It’s all because of the Internet. If we didn’t have this technology I would be same as everybody else. I couldn’t really amplify my voice.
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I don’t want the next generation to fight the same fight as I did.
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With 140 words in Chinese, you really can write a novel. Most of Confucius’s sentences are only four words, so 140 words might take his whole life to write. And you can discuss the most profound ideas related to democracy, freedom, poetry.
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Living in a system under the Communist ideology, an artist cannot avoid fighting for freedom of expression. You always have to be aware that art is not only a self-expression but a demonstration of human rights and dignity. To express yourself freely, a right as personal as it is, has always been difficult, given the political situation.
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The disaster-makers always get away, while the innocent are always punished.
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But the internet is like a tree that is growing. The people will always have the last word – even if someone has a very weak, quiet voice.
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The Olympics are an event manipulated into misleading people into believing that we have entered a new, successful and harmonious period in our history. This is not true.
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I loved New York-every inch of it. It was a little bit scary at that time, but still, the excitement was so strong-visually and intellectually. It was like a monster.
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The world is not changing if you don’t shoulder the burden of responsibility.
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Art is not an end but a beginning.
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In an environment without public platform nor protection, the individual is the most powerful and most responsible.