Ai Weiwei Quotes
- All Quotes
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The Chinese government only superficially speaks the language of the international community.
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China might seem quite successful in its controls, but it has only raised the water level. It’s like building a dam: it thinks there is more water so it will build higher. But every drop of water is still in there. It doesn’t understand how to let the pressure out. It builds up a way to maintain control and push the problem to the next generation.
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Tax crimes should be investigated by the tax bureau, not through secret police detention.
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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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Life is art. Art is life. I never separate it. I don’t feel that much anger. I equally have a lot of joy.
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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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I am always trying to find how to get the message through. In Munich we custom-made five thousand backpacks like the ones of those students who died in Sichuan to construct a simple sentence spoken by the mother of a dead student. It was: 'She has been happily living in this world for seven years.'
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Choices after waking up: To be true or to lie? To take action or be brainwashed? To be free or be jailed?
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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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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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Your own acts tell the world who you are and what kind of society you think it should be.
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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.
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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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To express yourself needs a reason, but expressing yourself is the reason.
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I think I have this responsibility to my father’s generation, and especially future generations.
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Expressing oneself is like a drug. I’m so addicted to it.
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A city is a place that can offer maximum freedom. Otherwise it’s incomplete.
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I lost all connection with the outside world and was immersed in a world of darkness. I was scared that my existence would fade silently. No one knew where I was, and no one would ever know. I was just like a small soybean-once fallen to the ground, it rolls into a crack in the corner. Being unable to make any sounds, it will forever be forgotten.
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The Internet is uncontrollable. And if the Internet is uncontrollable, freedom will win. It’s as simple as that.
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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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A fine line separates Chinese intellectuals and professors from the political gangsters who protect them.
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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.
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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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They all ask: Why? Why is it that this man’s name Ai Weiwei can never be typed on a Chinese computer or the whole sentence will disappear?