Ai Weiwei: Trending quotes

Ai Weiwei trending quotes. Read the latest quotes in collection

Ai Weiwei: 436 quotes39 likes

“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

2010-, China’s Censorship Can Never Defeat the Internet, 2012

“In a society where there is no freedom of the press, it is difficult for victims to be noticed. Just take the example from yesterday: I had given a telephone interview to CNN. Then, suddenly, CNN was shut down for a couple of minutes. It was the first time I experienced that my television went totally dead. I realized: Oh my God, it’s because of me. This is crazy! Which nation would do that? Maybe Cuba, North Korea, China. But what do they want, what are they so afraid of?”

Ai Weiwei

2010-, Ai Weiwei Does Not Feel Powerful, 2011

“The biggest crime of a dictatorship is to eradicate human feelings from people.”

Ai Weiwei

“ China Artist Ai Weiwei Says He Regrets Designing Beijing Olympics Bird’s Nest http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/libertycentral/2012/apr/16/china-censorship-internet-freedom.” Telegraph, March 5, 2012. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/art/art-news/9123705/China-artist-Ai-Weiwei-says-he-regrets-designing-Beijing-Olympics-Birds-Nest.html 2010-, 2012

“The Olympics are an opportunity to redefine the country, but the message is always wrong.”

Ai Weiwei

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

“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.”

Ai Weiwei

Ai Weiwei on Twitter in English (beta). (February 22, 2011) http://aiwwenglish.tumblr.com/
2010-, Twitter feeds, 2010-12

“People often say I started to become too outspoken after a certain period. It’s all because of the Internet. If we didn’t have this technology I would be same as everybody else. I couldn’t really amplify my voice.”

Ai Weiwei

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

“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.”

Ai Weiwei

2010-, You’re There but You’re Not Existing, 2012

“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.”

Ai Weiwei

Ai Weiwei on Twitter in English (beta). (February 26, 2012) http://aiwwenglish.tumblr.com/
2010-, Twitter feeds, 2010-12

“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

“ At home: Ai Weiwei http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/6fdcaae6-5959-11e1-abf1-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1nQPAYr26..” Financial Times, February 24, 2012. 2010-, 2012

“Freedom of expression is a very essential condition for me to make any art. Also, it is an essential value for my life. I have to protect this right and also to fight for the possibility.”

Ai Weiwei

" Artist Ai Weiwei: China Crushes Dissenting Voices http://www.foxnews.com/world/2012/06/11/artist-ai-weiwei-china-crushes-dissenting-voices/.," in: Fox News, June 11, 2012. 2010-, 2012

“I call on people to be “obsessed citizens,” forever questioning and asking for accountability. That’s the only chance we have today of a healthy and happy life.”

Ai Weiwei

" Our Duty Is to Remember Sichuan http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/may/25/china-earthquake-cover-up/print." Guardian.co.uk., May 25, 2009. 2000-09, 2009

“If Shakespeare were alive today, he might be writing on Twitter.”

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

“No outdoor sports can be more elegant than throwing stones at autocracy; no melees can be more exciting than those in cyberspace.”

Ai Weiwei

Ai Weiwei Twitter feed: @AiWW (8:03 a.m. March 10, 2010)
2010-, Twitter feeds, 2010-12

“I think right now is the moment. This is the beginning. We don’t know what is it the moment of, and maybe something much crazier will happen. But really, we see the sunshine coming in. It was clouded for maybe a hundred years. Our whole condition was very sad, but we still feel warmth, and the life in our bodies can still tell that there is excitement in there, even though death is waiting. We had better not enjoy the moment, but create the moment.”

Ai Weiwei

Tinari, Philip, and Angie Baecker, eds. Hans Ulrich Obrist: The China Interviews. Beijing: Office for Discourse Engineering, 2009.
2000-09, 2009

“This does not mean a meteor has fallen. This is the discovery of a star.”

Ai Weiwei

Watts, Jonathan. “ Chinese Human Rights Activist Liu Xiaobo Sentenced to 11 Years in Jail http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/dec/25/china-jails-liu-xiaobo.” Guardian, December 25, 2009. 2000-09, 2009

“Before blogging, I was living in the Middle Ages. Now my feelings for time and space are entirely different.”

Ai Weiwei

2000-09, The Bold and the Beautiful, 2009

“I often think what I’m saying is for the people who never had a chance to be heard.”

Ai Weiwei

2000-09, Truth to Power, 2009

“I think I have this responsibility to my father’s generation, and especially future generations.”

Ai Weiwei

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

“I don’t really care that much about if I want to be more successful or less successful in art, because I never think life and art should be separate. What’s life if you don’t have conversation and joy and anger?”

Ai Weiwei

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