Ai Weiwei Quotes
- All Quotes
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In talking about memory and our history, I think our humanity, especially in China, is cut. Cut, broken, separated. If we have a character from our history and memory, the character is broken, it’s shattered.
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Not an inch of the land belongs to you, but every inch could easily imprison you.
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I always have an attitude. Even if there are no plans, I have an attitude. Perhaps I answered imprecisely before, saying that I am just a person. I am actually a person with an attitude.
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The disaster-makers always get away, while the innocent are always punished.
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Writers, artists, and commentators on websites are detained or thrown into jail when they reflect on democracy, opening up, reform and reason. This is the reality of China.
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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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You see a Party system that crushes down anybody who has different opinions, who has different ideas in their mind. Simply to have different opinions can cost someone their life. They can be put in jail, they can be silenced, and they can disappear. And the other people would take it, not giving support.
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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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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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What does it matter if China’s economy grows when there are no basic protections for its citizens?
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The fundamental problem is not that there are limits on voicing different opinions here. The problem is that the whole society is dying through lack of responsibility or involvement.
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The individual under this kind of life, with no rights, has absolutely no power in this land. How can they even ask you for creativity? Or imagination, or courage or passion?
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Consider why the quality of school dinners is declining, even as more and more golf courses are opened.
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I don’t see myself as a dissident artist. I see them as a dissident government!
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I cannot ever accept the kind of conditions where you can sacrifice someone’s rights.
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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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Nothing can silence me as long as I am alive. I don’t give any kind of excuse. If I cannot come out of China or I cannot go in to China this is not going to change my belief. But when I am there, I am in this condition: I see it, I see people who need help. Then you know, I just want to offer my possibility to help them.
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It doesn’t matter where I am-China will stay in me. I don’t know how far I can still walk on this road and what is the limit.
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I want to prove that the system is not working. . . . . You can’t simply say that the system is not working. You have to work through it
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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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Measuring national prestige by gold medals is like using Viagra to judge the potency of a man.
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I have the responsibility to let the people know what happened to me, and did I commit the crime or if I didn’t, what is the real accusation? Why am I in this condition today? I think it reflects our human condition in this piece of land, and if I don’t bear some responsibility . . . . many, many people, their voice can never be heard.
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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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The Olympics are an opportunity to redefine the country, but the message is always wrong.