Ai Weiwei Quotes
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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.
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I think I have this responsibility to my father’s generation, and especially future generations.
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'Everything is art. Everything is politics.'
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We have to give our opinion, we have to say something, or we are a part of it. As an artist I am forced to say something.
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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?
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This is a decadent era. Its main characteristic is that it’s dependent on lies and cheating. Once it loses this characteristic, it can’t survive for even a day.
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The fundamental problem is not that there are limits on voicing different opinions here. The problem is that the whole society is dying through lack of responsibility or involvement.
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Stupidity can win for a moment, but it can never really succeed because the nature of humans is to seek freedom. Rulers can delay that freedom, but they cannot stop it.
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House arrest, travel restrictions, surveillance, stopping phone service, cutting the Internet connection. What we can still do is greet the crazy motherland once again.
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No outdoor sports can be more elegant than throwing stones at autocracy; no melees can be more exciting than those in cyberspace.
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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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Once you’ve tasted freedom, it stays in your heart and no one can take it. Then, you can be more powerful than a whole country.
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My activism is a part of me. If my art has anything to do with me, then my activism is part of my art.
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They the government really want to maintain power. At the same time, they refuse to communicate. They refuse to have good intentions. They refuse to be sincere. How can that last?
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A fine line separates Chinese intellectuals and professors from the political gangsters who protect them.
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I think by shattering it we can create a new form, a new way to look at what is valuable-how we decide what is valuable.
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If there is one who’s not free, then I am not free. If there is one who suffers, then I suffer.
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Maybe there is something I got from it. Maybe you also start to be clear on certain things.
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I have to respect my life, and free expression is part of my life. I can never really silence myself.
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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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This does not mean a meteor has fallen. This is the discovery of a star.
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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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We need to get out of the old language.