Ai Weiwei Quotes (218 quotes) | Quotes of famous people

Ai Weiwei, " interview for Unilever Series at the Tate Modern http://www.tate.org.uk/context-comment/video/ai-weiwei-conversation," at tate.org.uk, October 12, 2010.
2010-, 2010

“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.”

Ai Weiwei

2010-, Ai Weiwei, interview by Christiane Amanpour, 2010

“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.”

Ai Weiwei

2000-09, Escape from Propaganda, 2009

“My blog is an extension of my thinking. Why should I deform my thinking simply because I live under a government that espouses an ideology which I believe to be totally against humanity?”

Ai Weiwei

2000-09, Truth to Power, 2008

Ai Weiwei: Trending quotes

“I don’t want the next generation to fight the same fight as I did.”

Ai Weiwei

2010-, Never Sorry, 2012

Fight

“A city is a place that can offer maximum freedom. Otherwise it’s incomplete.”

Ai Weiwei

2010-, The City: Beijing, 2011

Freedom

“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

2010-, Digital Activism in China, 2010

People , Change

Ai Weiwei Quotes

“But every penny they borrowed or made from China has really come as a result of how this nation sacrificed everybody’s rights. With globalization and the Internet, we all know it.”

Ai Weiwei

interview in Newsweek, 21 November 2011.
2010-, 2011
Context: Today, the West feels very shy about human rights and the political situation. They’re in need of money. But every penny they borrowed or made from China has really come as a result of how this nation sacrificed everybody’s rights. With globalization and the Internet, we all know it. Don’t pretend you don’t know it. The Western politicians—shame on them if they say they’re not responsible for this. It’s getting worse, and it will keep getting worse.

“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?”

Ai Weiwei

2010-, Living in Fear Is Worse Than Imprisonment, 2012

Sense , Freedom

“The language of communication will always need to be renewed.”

Ai Weiwei

2000-09, Truth to Power, 2009

Communication

“Overturning police cars is a super-intense workout. It’s probably the only sport I enjoy.”

Ai Weiwei

Ai Weiwei Twitter feed: @AiWW (6:46 p.m. June 15, 2009).
2000-09, Twitter feeds, 2009

Cars , Sport

“I don’t know about five years from now. I have no plans for that. Maybe I’ll be forgotten by then.”

Ai Weiwei

2000-09, Ai Weiwei: A Rebel of Poet Roots, 2008

“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.”

Ai Weiwei

Wong, Veronica, and Gisela Sommer. “ Ai Weiwei Describes Mental Torment in Captivity http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/china-news/ai-weiwei-describes-mental-torment-in-captivity-59915.html.” Epoch Times, August 3, 2011.
2010-, 2011

World

“A society that has no ideals, that discards the principles of humanitarianism, that abandons the fundamental rights and dignity of humanity, can only survive by denying truth, fairness and justice.”

Ai Weiwei

2000-09, Our Duty Is to Remember Sichuan, 2009

Truth , Justice

“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.”

Ai Weiwei

2000-09, Ai Weiwei, Nursing Head Wound, Sharpens Criticism, 2009

Parting

“Writers, artists, and commentators on websites are detained or thrown into jail when they reflect on democracy, opening up, reform and reason. This is the reality of China.”

Ai Weiwei

Higgins, Charlotte. " Ai Weiwei: ‘China in many ways is just like the middle ages http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2011/apr/11/ai-weiwei-china-last-interview." Guardian.co.uk., April 11, 2011.
2010-, 2011

Democracy , Reality

“If a nation cannot face its past, it has no future.”

Ai Weiwei

2010-, Ai Weiwei: ‘Shame on Me.’, 2011

Past , Future

“[My family] suffer so much. My mother was much older when I came out [of detention]. She had problems with her hearing and high blood pressure. But they still support me. When you make somebody disappear and you don’t announce it to the family, what is this? You make people desperate and bring them close to death. If our cat or dog is lost, it makes us desperately want to know where it is—so for humans disappearing, you can barely imagine the pain. What kind of society is this? If a society cannot even support somebody like me, then people ask: Who is under protection, then? That’s why there is such support for me. It is not because I am so beautiful or so charming. People feel, This guy is fighting for us.”

Ai Weiwei

“ Ai Weiwei: Artistic Licence http://www.economist.com/node/21554178.” Economist, May 5, 2012.
2010-, 2012

Death , Pain , People , Family

“It is better to have a retarded president who respects human values than a clever government without human values.”

Ai Weiwei

2000-09, Truth to Power, 2008

“Behind every political deal in this country, the first casualties are always the ordinary people, who are barely treated as human.”

Ai Weiwei

2000-09, Our Duty Is to Remember Sichuan, 2009

People , Country

“You see a Party system that crushes down anybody who [has] different opinions, who has different ideas in their mind. Simply to have different opinions can cost someone their life. They can be put in jail, they can be silenced, and they can [disappear]. And the other people would take it, not giving support.”

Ai Weiwei

2010-, Ai Weiwei, interview by Christiane Amanpour, 2010

Life , People , Idea , Support

“On the Internet, people do not know each other, they don’t have common leaders, sometimes not even a common political goal. But they come together on certain issues. I think that is a miracle. It never happened in the past. Without the Internet, I would not even be Ai Weiwei today. I would just be an artist somewhere doing my shows.”

Ai Weiwei

2010-, Ai Weiwei: ‘Shame on Me.’, 2011

People , Thinking , Past

“The Chinese [government] only superficially speaks the language of the international community.”

Ai Weiwei

2000-09, Truth to Power, 2008

Communication

“Today China and the world will meet again. People will see that the planet is now smaller than at any time in history, that mankind should bid farewell to arrogance and indifference, to ignorance and discrimination, and understand that we share the same small piece of land. It will be a time to rediscover each other, to share what is good in life, to look each other in the eye and link all ten fingers.”

Ai Weiwei

“ Why I’ll Stay Away from the Opening Ceremony of the Olympics http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/aug/07/olympics2008.china.” Guardian, August 7, 2008.
2000-09, 2008

Life , People , World , History

“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.”

Ai Weiwei

2010-, I have to speak for people who are afraid, 2010

World , Thinking

“I always have an attitude. Even if there are no plans, I have an attitude. Perhaps I answered imprecisely before, saying that I am just a person. I am actually a person with an attitude.”

Ai Weiwei

Sans, Jerome. China Talks: Interviews with 32 Contemporary Artists. Beijing: Timezone8, 2009. P. 9.
2000-09, 2009

Personality

“Very few people know why art sells so high. I don’t even know.”

Ai Weiwei

Ai Weiwei, interview in “ Change http://www.pbs.org/art21/watch-now/episode-change,” Episode 1, Season Six, Art: 21—Art in the Twenty-First Century, PBS, April 2012.
2010-, 2012

People , Art

“The state is taking action against people who have peacefully demonstrated their ideas. They are writers—all they did is to express their minds through the Internet. So the pattern is very clear. The state tries to maintain stability by crushing any thought of making change. It could happen to me, because I did the same thing and in many cases I went much further and deeper. But I always think the government can learn from their mistakes—they should learn and understand; they should be just as intelligent as anyone else.”

Ai Weiwei

2010-, I have to speak for people who are afraid, 2010

People , Intelligence , Idea , Understanding

“During the days in detention, I thought most about the moon.”

Ai Weiwei

Ai Weiwei on Twitter in English (beta). (December 10, 2011) http://aiwwenglish.tumblr.com/
2010-, Twitter feeds, 2010-12

“Chairman Mao was the first in the world to use Twitter. All his quotations are within 140 words.”

Ai Weiwei

2000-09, The Bold and the Beautiful, 2009

World

“They don’t believe in liberty. They don’t believe in China before the Communists. There is only one simple, clear task: to protect their control, to maintain their governing. Which is such a pity.”

Ai Weiwei

Wines, Michael. “ China’s Impolitic Artist, Still Waiting to Be Silenced http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/28/world/asia/28weiwei.html?pagewanted=all.” New York Times, November 28, 2009.
2000-09, 2009

“Art is always about overcoming obstacles between the inner condition and the skill for expression.”

Ai Weiwei

Solway, Diane. “Enforced Disappearance.” W Magazine, November 2011.
2010-, 2011

Art

“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.”

Ai Weiwei

2010-, Ai Weiwei Does Not Feel Powerful, 2011

Feeling , Baby

“I wouldn’t say I’ve become more radical: I was born radical.”

Ai Weiwei

“ Artist’s Quotes http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-modern/exhibition/unilever-series-ai-weiwei/artists-quotes”. Excerpted from a conversation with curators Juliet Bingham and Marko Daniel, Beijing, May 31 and June 1, 2010. Tate Museums, UK.
2010-, 2010

“Creativity is part of human nature. It can only be untaught.”

Ai Weiwei

2010-, Life’s Work: Ai Weiwei, 2012

Nature , Parting

“Antiques exist as evidence of the cultural tracks we made in the past.”

Ai Weiwei

2000-09, Truth to Power, 2009

Past

“I think my stance and my way of life is my most important art.”

Ai Weiwei

Osnos, Evan. “ It’s Not Beautiful: An Artist Takes On the System http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/05/24/100524fa_fact_osnos?currentPage=all.” New Yorker, May 24, 2010, 54–63.
2010-, 2010

Life , Art , Way , Thinking

“I think the government [will] lose the battle. Because for a nation to develop, the government needs to correct the information, they need to have a space for people to be involved, to discuss, to participate in the change. Otherwise, I don’t think they can really last in this kind of development, because economically it goes so fast but politically it stays the same as many, many years ago. I think even the government senses that this is impossible.”

Ai Weiwei

Ai Weiwei, “In China, Is Censorship the Mother of Creativity?” Interview on The Stream, Aljazeera, April 16, 2012.
2010-, 2012

People , Thinking , Sense , Change

“I loved New York—every inch of it. It was a little bit scary at that time, but still, the excitement was so strong—visually and intellectually. It was like a monster.”

Ai Weiwei

2010-, I have to speak for people who are afraid, 2010

Love , Strong , Time

“I think strategically China has come to a very crucial moment. They [the government] have to re-justify themselves. Even the past 20 to 30 years are based on a kind of destructive, suicidal act. Now they are trying to reach a higher level, but I think in any society, culture should have its own rights: not to be touched by the government, not to be promoted by the government, also not to be destroyed by the government.”

Ai Weiwei

Gill, Chris. “ Ai Weiwei: ‘To use art is not enough.’ http://www.theartnewspaper.com/articles/“To-use-art-is-not-enough”/19818” Art Newspaper, December 3, 2009.
2000-09, 2009

Thinking , Suicide , Past

“When I checked into a hospital [in Germany, after having been beaten by police in Sichuan], I was told there was bleeding in my brain and I was near fatal collapse. I was rushed into surgery. When I awoke I felt like a normal person again. But I will not feel whole until I and my fellow Chinese can live freely.”

Ai Weiwei

2000-09, An Artist’s Ordeal. 2009

Feeling , Personality

“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

2010-, Ai Weiwei: The Dissident, 2011

People , Communication

“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?”

Ai Weiwei

2010-, Ai Weiwei: The Dissident, 2011

Communication , Time , Sincerity

“Maybe there is something I got from it. Maybe you also start to be clear on certain things.”

Ai Weiwei

2010-, Ai Weiwei: 'Every day I think, this will be the day I get taken in again...', 2011

“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.”

Ai Weiwei

2000-09, Happiness Can’t Be Faked, 2008

Money , People , World , Home

“They know too many things they should not know and they do not know some things they need to know.”

Ai Weiwei

Moore, Malcolm. " 'Ai Weiwei: "The police can be very tough, but I can be tougher sometimes.”' http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/art/art-features/9299885/Ai-Weiwei-The-police-can-be-very-tough-but-I-can-be-tougher-sometimes.html," in: Telegraph, May 30, 2012.
2010-, 2012

“Expressing oneself is like a drug. I’m so addicted to it.”

Ai Weiwei

2000-09, The Bold and the Beautiful, 2009

“I think it’s a responsibility for any artist to protect freedom of expression and to use any way to extend this power.”

Ai Weiwei

2010-, Ai Weiwei Does Not Feel Powerful, 2011

Way , Thinking , Freedom

“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

“ Why I’ll Stay Away from the Opening Ceremony of the Olympics http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/aug/07/olympics2008.china.” Guardian, August 7, 2008.
2000-09, 2008

War , Way , Communication , Freedom

“The art always wins. Anything can happen to me, but the art will stay.”

Ai Weiwei

“ Ai Weiwei: Artistic Licence http://www.economist.com/node/21554178.” Economist, May 5, 2012.
2010-, 2012

Art

“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.”

Ai Weiwei

2000-09, Truth to Power, 2008

Problem

“In an environment without public platform nor protection, the individual is the most powerful and most responsible.”

Ai Weiwei

Ai Weiwei on Twitter in English (beta). http://aiwwenglish.tumblr.com/ (January 10, 2011)
2010-, Twitter feeds, 2010-12

“Cities really are mental conditions. Beijing is a nightmare. A constant nightmare.”

Ai Weiwei

2010-, The City: Beijing, 2011

“I always want to design a frame that’s open to everyone. I don’t see art as a secret code.”

Ai Weiwei

“ Artist’s Quotes http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-modern/exhibition/unilever-series-ai-weiwei/artists-quote.” Excerpted from a conversation with curators Juliet Bingham and Marko Daniel, Beijing, May 31 and June 1, 2010. Tate Museums, UK.
2010-, 2010

Secret , Art

“A land that rejects the truth, barricades itself against change and lacks the spirit of freedom is hopeless.”

Ai Weiwei

2000-09, Ai Weiwei, Nursing Head Wound, Sharpens Criticism, 2009

Truth , Freedom , Change

“What can they do besides exile [me] or make me disappear? They have no imagination or creativity.”

Ai Weiwei

Ai Weiwei Twitter feed: @AiWW (5:41 p.m. November 19, 2009)
2000-09, Twitter feeds, 2009

Imagination

“My messages are temporary and shouldn’t be our permanent condition. And like the wind it will pass. We’ll have another wind coming.”

Ai Weiwei

2000-09, Who Is Ai Weiwei?, 2009