Ai Weiwei Quotes
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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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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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In an environment without public platform nor protection, the individual is the most powerful and most responsible.
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Not an inch of the land belongs to you, but every inch could easily imprison you.
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The Chinese authorities think of artists as prostitutes. And in reality it’s true: in the Communist system artists just represent what the power structure seeks them to represent. It is prostitution.'
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I wouldn’t say I’ve become more radical: I was born radical.
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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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A land that rejects the truth, barricades itself against change and lacks the spirit of freedom is hopeless.
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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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Three years after the CCTV headquarters fire in Beijing in February 2009, human skeletons lie forgotten. Is anyone accountable?
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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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The disaster-makers always get away, while the innocent are always punished.
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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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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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I cannot ever accept the kind of conditions where you can sacrifice someone’s rights.
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Art is always about overcoming obstacles between the inner condition and the skill for expression.
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Neither fairness nor justice, neither reality nor humanity can be simulated or manipulated by wires or remote controls.
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China has not established the rule of law and thus there is no justice.
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The Sichuan disaster is not the first nor the most wrongful. But all the details of this tragedy will be forgotten, and once again it will be like nothing ever happened. Eventually all these disasters will together create a bizarre miracle called civilization and evolution.
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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 language of communication will always need to be renewed.
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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 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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One of the reasons religions are widely accepted is spiritual laziness and its resulting fear.