- All Quotes
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I don’t see myself as a dissident artist. I see them as a dissident government!
Ai Weiwei -
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.
Ai Weiwei
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The 81 days of detention were a nightmare. I am not unique; it happened to many people in China. Conditions were extreme, created by a system that thinks it is above the law and has become a kind of monstrous machine. There were so many moments when I felt desperate and hopeless. But still, the next morning, I heard the birds singing.
Ai Weiwei -
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.
Ai Weiwei -
I’m not sure I’m good at art, but I find an escape in it.
Ai Weiwei -
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.
Ai Weiwei -
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.
Ai Weiwei -
Not an inch of the land belongs to you, but every inch could easily imprison you.
Ai Weiwei
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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.
Ai Weiwei -
This is something you can never erase. It leaves a scar on you.
Ai Weiwei -
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?
Ai Weiwei -
The great success of this system is that it makes the general public afraid of taking responsibility, afraid of taking a position or giving a definite answer, or even of making mistakes.
Ai Weiwei -
'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.'
Ai Weiwei -
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.
Ai Weiwei
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I cannot ever accept the kind of conditions where you can sacrifice someone’s rights.
Ai Weiwei -
No outdoor sports can be more elegant than throwing stones at autocracy; no melees can be more exciting than those in cyberspace.
Ai Weiwei -
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?
Ai Weiwei -
One of the reasons religions are widely accepted is spiritual laziness and its resulting fear.
Ai Weiwei -
'Everything is art. Everything is politics.'
Ai Weiwei -
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.'
Ai Weiwei
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They the government cannot stop people from communicating freely, to get information and to express themselves. When they do that, this nation is not a right place to live. They sacrifice generations of people’s opportunities. This is a crime.
Ai Weiwei -
I always want to design a frame that’s open to everyone. I don’t see art as a secret code.
Ai Weiwei -
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.
Ai Weiwei -
Citizens should bear the responsibility to act.
Ai Weiwei