Ventura, Catherine. “ Is Twitter a Human Right? One Chinese Activist Thinks So http://www.huffingtonpost.com/catherine-ventura/is-twitter-a-human-right_b_501971.html.” Huffington Post, March 17, 2012. <br class="br">2010-, 2012

“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.”

Ai Weiwei

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

“The only reason they put me in jail is my involvement in politics, my criticism of the authorities. Later the excuse for my detention became my “tax problem.” But internally they never told me anything about it. I don’t want to underestimate their intelligence, but up to this day I think what they did is very stupid. In fact, they even helped me in an ironic sense. They gave me a chance to explain what is happening with this system. They provided such a platform for me.”

Ai Weiwei

2010-, Ai Weiwei Does Not Feel Powerful, 2011

“[With] 140 words in Chinese, you really can write a novel. Most of Confucius’s sentences [are] only four words, so 140 words [might] take his whole life to write. And you can discuss the most profound ideas related to democracy, freedom, poetry.”

Ai Weiwei

2010-, Digital Activism in China, 2010

“Being an artist is more of a mindset, a way of seeing things; it is no longer so much about producing something.”

Ai Weiwei

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

“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.”

Ai Weiwei

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

“They tell us it will be about “emotions” and “friendship,” that it will be a night of joy. Who are they kidding?”

Ai Weiwei

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

“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.”

Ai Weiwei

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

“Later I became very involved in writing. I really enjoyed that moment of writing. People would pass around my sentences. That was a feeling I never had before. It was like a bullet out of the gun.”

Ai Weiwei

2010-, Ai Weiwei: The Dissident, 2011

“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.”

Ai Weiwei

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

“I want to prove that the system is not working..... You can’t simply say that the system is not working. You have to work through it”

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. <br class="br">2010-, 2010

“My current situation is, I always want to find a new possibility. China is in a changing stage, and that puts me in a very difficult situation, because anytime a new condition is announced there is a lot of struggle between the new and the old. So the establishment really becomes extremely nervous because they are refusing to meet very basic human rights or values. I don’t know how long I can still struggle in China, but I will try my best. Because this is a land I am very familiar with, and we have been in the same kind of struggle for generations. I think it’s a time for change.”

Ai Weiwei

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

“I also have to speak out for people around me who are afraid, who think it is not worth it or who have totally given up hope. So I want to set an example: you can do it and this is okay, to speak out.”

Ai Weiwei

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

“When I returned to China [from the United States], I didn’t have a U. S. passport, a wife, or a university degree. From the Chinese point of view, I was a total failure.”

Ai Weiwei

2000-09, Truth to Power, 2009

“This simple form of repression, of using the method of not letting anyone speak, will never succeed.”

Ai Weiwei

2010-, Ai Weiwei Says Blind Dissident’s Escape Will Inspire Chinese, 2012