Ai Weiwei Quotes
- All Quotes
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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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I don’t feel powerful at all. I am still under this kind of detention, and you know, this is kind of a bail. Even yesterday I realized while trying to take care of the baby, at the park, I had been secretly followed and it’s quite fragile. Maybe being powerful means to be fragile.
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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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We should leave behind discrimination, because it is narrow-minded and ignorant, denies contact and warmth, and corrodes mankind’s belief that we can better ourselves. The only way to avoid misunderstanding, war, and bloodshed is to defend freedom of expression and to communicate with sincerity, concern, and good intentions.
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I don’t see myself as a dissident artist. I see them as a dissident government!
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Life is never guaranteed to be safe, so we better use it while we are still in good condition.
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Chairman Mao was the first in the world to use Twitter. All his quotations are within 140 words.
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I am very much interested in the so-called useless object. I mean, it takes perfect craftsmanship, beautiful material carefully measured and crafted, but at the same time it’s really useless.
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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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They just don’t trust people. They don’t trust individuals, they don’t trust any change that should serve and benefit people, and they try to stop it.
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When I checked into a hospital in Germany, after having been beaten by police in Sichuan, I was told there was bleeding in my brain and I was near fatal collapse. I was rushed into surgery. When I awoke I felt like a normal person again. But I will not feel whole until I and my fellow Chinese can live freely.
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I don’t really care that much about if I want to be more successful or less successful in art, because I never think life and art should be separate. What’s life if you don’t have conversation and joy and anger?
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We see plenty of artistic work that reflects superficial social conditions, but very little work that questions fundamental values.
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It’s hard to recover. You become not so innocent. You become, in a way, more sophisticated, which I think you shouldn’t. We should all have more simple happiness . . . . You become bitter.
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You’re in total isolation. And you don’t know how long you’re going to be there, but you truly believe they can do anything to you. There’s no way to even question it. You’re not protected by anything. Why am I here? Your mind is very uncertain of time. You become like mad. It’s very hard for anyone. Even for people who have strong beliefs.
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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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I spend very little time just doing ''art as art.'
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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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Expressing oneself is like a drug. I’m so addicted to it.
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I came to art because I wanted to escape the other regulations of the society. The whole society is so political. But the irony is that my art becomes more and more political.
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The art always wins. Anything can happen to me, but the art will stay.
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Art is not an end but a beginning.
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I’ve never planned any part of my career-except being an artist. And I was pushed into that corner because I thought being an artist was the only way to have a little freedom.
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The government computer has one button: delete.