Ai Weiwei Quotes
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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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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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In an environment without public platform nor protection, the individual is the most powerful and most responsible.
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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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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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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.
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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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The language of communication will always need to be renewed.
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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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China has not established the rule of law and thus there is no justice.
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Freedom of speech implies the world isn’t defined. It is meaningful when people are allowed to see the world their way.
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If Shakespeare were alive today, he might be writing on Twitter.
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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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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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Art is always about overcoming obstacles between the inner condition and the skill for expression.
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One of the reasons religions are widely accepted is spiritual laziness and its resulting fear.
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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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During the days in detention, I thought most about the moon.
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The people who control culture in China have no culture.
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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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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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People have said, if you leave, you may never come back. Or they may not even let you leave. So this is always a cost you may have to pay. But I don’t want to restrict myself: When it happens, it happens. I have to deal with it, but not to prepare for it, because it is a kind of stupidity. If you prepare for it too much, you become a part of it.
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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.