Ai Weiwei Quotes
- All Quotes
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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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Maybe there is something I got from it. Maybe you also start to be clear on certain things.
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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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Creativity is part of human nature. It can only be untaught.
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Because of the economic crisis, China and the United States are bound together. This is a totally new phenomenon, and nobody will fight for ideology anymore. It’s all about business.
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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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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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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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When the mayor of Nagoya denies the Nanjing Massacre, he gets blacklisted by the city of Nanjing. When the government of Sichuan denies 'tofu dregs' construction which caused the collapse of several schools, they get blacklisted by me.
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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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The population is in a constant state of enforced dislocation. So let us hope that a totally new culture will come out of this.
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Tips on surviving the regime: Respect yourself and speak for others. Do one small thing every day to prove the existence of justice.
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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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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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Once again, the facts have been erased.
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Anyone who cares about truth should avoid not politics, but Olympic lies.
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You can see China still cannot offer any real value to the world except as cheap labor, manufacturer, and its own so-called stability. Besides that, I don’t see any creative values and creative mind or thinking that can be announced from China. So this is the struggle China has to face in the next decades.
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The frustration mainly comes from trying to understand what they really want. Also, you cannot understand how can such a large nation maintain its so-called stability by doing something very unlawful. I mean, how can they possibly manage to stabilize the whole social condition by not acting with justice and fairness.
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I think all aesthetic judgments-all the aesthetic choices we are making-are moral choices. They cannot escape the moral dimension in the broader sense. It has to relate to the philosophical understanding of who we are and how so-called 'art and culture' functions in today’s world.
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My voice is not for me. Every time I make a sentence I think how many people for how many generations had a voice that no one could hear. At most they will be remembered as numbers; in many cases, even numbers don’t exist.
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I’m an artist who is always looking for what is possible. I’m always looking to extend the boundaries.
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The 2008 Olympics has created an illusion of China to the public and to the outside world. It is so fantastic, so unreal, that the entire meaning of the games is being distorted.
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No autocracy can lead people to believe that they are living in harmony and happiness.
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The Internet changes the structure of society all the time-this massiveness made of individuals.