Ai Weiwei Quotes
- All Quotes
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The Olympics are an opportunity to redefine the country, but the message is always wrong.
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Police in China can do whatever they want; after 81 days in arbitrary detention you clearly realise that they don’t have to obey their own laws.
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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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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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Your own acts tell the world who you are and what kind of society you think it should be.
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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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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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In a society like this there is no negotiation, no discussion, except to tell you that power can crush you any time they want-not only you, your whole family and all people like you.
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Antiques exist as evidence of the cultural tracks we made in the past.
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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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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 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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Measuring national prestige by gold medals is like using Viagra to judge the potency of a man.
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To express yourself needs a reason, but expressing yourself is the reason.
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I always want to design a frame that’s open to everyone. I don’t see art as a secret code.
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During the days in detention, I thought most about the moon.
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I try to encourage people to look at our past in a critical way because as our education, we have a great, great history. But in reality we are poorest in ethics and philosophy, so I try to raise people’s consciousness on how we deal with our past.
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This simple form of repression, of using the method of not letting anyone speak, will never succeed.
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Expressing oneself is like a drug. I’m so addicted to it.
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It is as difficult for Chinese politicians to get a real smile from the people as it is to keep the sky blue and clouds white.
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If Shakespeare were alive today, he might be writing on Twitter.
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Art is not an end but a beginning.
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A city is a place that can offer maximum freedom. Otherwise it’s incomplete.
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Myself, I try to search for the new way, always trying to set up a new possibility and to find the new tools to express myself. To reach a broader audience.