Ai Weiwei: Trending quotes (page 7)

“I have to respect my life, and free expression is part of my life. I can never really silence myself.”

Ai Weiwei

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

Life , Silence , Parting

“It’s hard to recover. You become not so innocent. You become, in a way, more sophisticated, which I think you shouldn’t. We should all have more simple happiness.... You become bitter.”

Ai Weiwei

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

Way , Thinking , Happiness

“Life is art. Art is life. I never separate it. I don’t feel that much anger. I equally have a lot of joy.”

Ai Weiwei

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

Life , Art , Feeling , Joy

“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?”

Ai Weiwei

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

“I am very much interested in the so-called useless object. I mean, it takes perfect craftsmanship, beautiful material carefully measured and crafted, but at the same time it’s really useless.”

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

Beauty , Time , Perfection

“This is something you can never erase. It leaves a scar on you.”

Ai Weiwei

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

“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

Way , Thinking

“Anyone who cares about truth should avoid not politics, but Olympic lies.”

Ai Weiwei

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

Truth

“Tradition is only a readymade. It’s for us to make a new gesture—to use it as a reference, more as a starting point than conclusion. Of course, there are very different attitudes and interpretations about our past and our memory of it. And ours is never a complete one, but is broken. In China, but also in my practice.”

Ai Weiwei

2000-09, Escape from Propaganda, 2009

Memory , Past

“I feel powerless all the time, but I regain my energy by making a very small difference that won’t cost me much.”

Ai Weiwei

2010-, Life’s Work: Ai Weiwei, 2012

Feeling , Time

“There were thousands of moving messages. People sent money from their first month’s salary. Others said: This is my retirement payment—take it. This is the money for my next pair of shoes—take it. It was very important for me to see and hear those things. Normally you do not see the warmth, humor, care and generosity of the people while writing a blog. You just feel like you are walking in a dark tunnel and you feel alone.”

Ai Weiwei

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

Money , People , Shoe , Feeling

“Neither fairness nor justice, neither reality nor humanity can be simulated or manipulated by wires or remote controls.”

Ai Weiwei

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

Justice , Reality

“Nothing. Jail is about nothing. Completely blank.”

Ai Weiwei

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

“My activism is a part of me. If my art has anything to do with me, then my activism is part of my art.”

Ai Weiwei

“Ai Weiwei’s Year of Living Dangerously.” Art in America, September 2009, 28.
2000-09, 2009

Art , Parting

“Life is never guaranteed to be safe, so we better use it while we are still in good condition.”

Ai Weiwei

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

Life

“The Internet changes the structure of society all the time—this massiveness made of individuals.”

Ai Weiwei

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

Change , Time

“A small act is worth a million thoughts.”

Ai Weiwei

2000-09, Meet the Most Interesting Person in China, 2009