Ai Weiwei Quotes
- All Quotes
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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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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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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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If Shakespeare were alive today, he might be writing on Twitter.
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'Why are you so concerned about society?' That is always the question. And my answer is simple: 'Because you are an artist, you have to associate yourself with freedom of expression.'
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Freedom of expression is a very essential condition for me to make any art. Also, it is an essential value for my life. I have to protect this right and also to fight for the possibility.
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It is better to have a retarded president who respects human values than a clever government without human values.
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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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This simple form of repression, of using the method of not letting anyone speak, will never succeed.
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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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People always tell me, 'Weiwei, leave the nation, please.' Or 'Live longer and watch them die.' Either leave, or be patient and watch how they die. I really don’t know what I’m going to do.
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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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China has not established the rule of law and thus there is no justice.
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Art is always about overcoming obstacles between the inner condition and the skill for expression.
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I don’t see myself as a dissident artist. I see them as a dissident government!
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During the days in detention, I thought most about the moon.
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I don’t want the next generation to fight the same fight as I did.
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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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The language of communication will always need to be renewed.
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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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You know, if they can do this to me they can do this to anybody, and they have been doing this for over sixty years . . . . it’s a very strange world.
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I think art certainly is the vehicle for us to develop any new ideas, to be creative, to extend our imagination, to change the current conditions.
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The Olympics are an opportunity to redefine the country, but the message is always wrong.
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I think restrictions are an essential condition in the fight for freedom of expression. It’s also a source for any kind of creativity.