Ai Weiwei Quotes
- All Quotes
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I call on people to be 'obsessed citizens,' forever questioning and asking for accountability. That’s the only chance we have today of a healthy and happy life.
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I have no sense of why I lost my freedom and if you do not know how you lost something, how can you protect it?'
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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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The language of communication will always need to be renewed.
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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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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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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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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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The Olympics are an opportunity to redefine the country, but the message is always wrong.
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It is absurd that so much money has been wasted on manipulating public opinion, on simulating emotion. This nation is notorious for its ability to make or fake anything cheaply. 'Made-in-China' goods now fill homes around the world. But our giant country has a small problem. We can’t manufacture the happiness of our people.
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Only with the Internet can a peasant I have never met hear my voice and I can learn what’s on his mind. A fairy tale has come true.
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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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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 see myself as a dissident artist. I see them as a dissident government!
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Being an artist is more of a mindset, a way of seeing things; it is no longer so much about producing something.
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The officials want China to be seen as a cultured, creative nation, but in this anti-liberal political society everything outside the direct control of the state is seen as a potential threat.
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Expressing oneself is like a drug. I’m so addicted to it.
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Block my blog if you want, but I cannot self-censor, because that is the only reason I have the blog. We both know this is a game. You have to play your part, and I have to play mine.
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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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Antiques exist as evidence of the cultural tracks we made in the past.
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To protect the right of expression is the central part of an artist’s activity. . . . . In China many essential rights are lacking, and I wanted to remind people of this.
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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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I don’t have this concept that separates my art from my daily life. They are one thing to me. They are always one. How do you find the way to express yourself and how to communicate with others?
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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.