Ai Weiwei Quotes (218 quotes, page 2) | Quotes of famous people

“I’m so fearful, that’s not fearless… I act more brave because I know the danger’s really there. If you don’t act, the danger becomes stronger.”

Ai Weiwei

2010-, Never Sorry, 2012

Fear

“China [is a] society which forbids any flow of the information and freedom of speech. This is on record, so everybody should know this.”

Ai Weiwei

2010-, Digital Activism in China, 2010

Freedom

“My favorite word? It’s 'act.”

Ai Weiwei

Karen Smith et al. Ai Weiwei (Contemporary Artists (Phaidon), London: Phaidon Press, 2009.
2000-09, 2009

“Twitter is the people’s tool, the tool of the ordinary people, people who have no other resources.”

Ai Weiwei

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.
2010-, 2012

People

“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

World , Dead

“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

Stupidity , Intelligence , Problem , Thinking

“[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

Life , Democracy , Idea , Freedom

“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

Way

“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

Way , Understanding , Problem , Thinking

“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

Friendship , Joy , Night

“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

People , Law , Bird , Thinking

“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

People , Feeling

“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

People , Smile

“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.
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

Thinking , Change , Time

“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

People , Hope , Thinking

“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

Failure , Universe

“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

“No matter how long our politicians order people to sing songs of praise, no matter how many fireworks they launch into the heavens, and no matter how many foreign leaders they embrace, they cannot arouse a genuine mood of joy and celebration among the people.”

Ai Weiwei

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

People , Mood , Singing , Joy

“I think China is in a chaos now and it could be more chaos. It’s an orderly chaos. It’s a party that ruthlessly violates every human’s basic rights to serve its own purpose.”

Ai Weiwei

2010-, Digital Activism in China, 2010

Thinking

“To what degree does it help us to change our life, or even to sense our existence, to really evaluate “why?” I think those questions cannot be escaped. Sometimes in history it’s more hidden; somewhere these can be very personal and individual questions. But in certain times and certain places, your existence has to be associated with other people’s situations. You have to make a reaction to the living conditions. It’s not avoidable. You cannot just be blind about what is happening there. Such is the case in China.”

Ai Weiwei

2000-09, Escape from Propaganda, 2009

Life , People , History , Question

“[People] always tell me, “Weiwei, leave the nation, please.” Or “Live longer and watch them die.” Either leave, or be patient and watch how they die. I really don’t know what I’m going to do.”

Ai Weiwei

2010-, The City: Beijing, 2011

People

“I want people to see their own power.”

Ai Weiwei

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

People

“Do they want me to stay? Do they want me to leave? Do they want me to hang myself? To kill myself? What do they want?”

Ai Weiwei

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

“I’ve never planned any part of my career—except being an artist. And I was pushed into that corner because I thought being an artist was the only way to have a little freedom.”

Ai Weiwei

2010-, Life’s Work: Ai Weiwei, 2012

Way , Freedom , Parting

“I see myself not as a leader but as somebody who initiates things or finds the problem or provokes a discussion. You have to be always ready to engage, willing to participate. When events or history happen, you just have to be aware and respond.”

Ai Weiwei

2010-, Life’s Work: Ai Weiwei, 2012

History , Problem

“Everything is art. Everything is politics.”

Ai Weiwei

Coonan, Clifford. “ An Artist’s Struggle for Justice in China http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/an-artists-struggle-for-justice-in-china1912352.html.” Independent, February 27, 2010.
2010-, 2010

Art

“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.”

Ai Weiwei

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

Art

“Not an inch of the land belongs to you, but every inch could easily imprison you.”

Ai Weiwei

Ai Weiwei Twitter feed: @AiWW (9:10 a.m. May 21, 2010)
2010-, Twitter feeds, 2010-12

“The individual under this kind of life, with no rights, has absolutely no power in this land. How can they even ask you for creativity? Or imagination, or courage or passion?”

Ai Weiwei

“ House Arrest in China: Orwell, Kafka, and Ai Weiwei http://www.economist.com/blogs/analects/2012/04/house-arrest-china.” Economist, April 13, 2012
2010-, 2012

Life , Imagination , Courage , Passion

“But censorship by itself doesn’t work. It is, as Mao said, about the pen and the gun.”

Ai Weiwei

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

“What does it matter if China’s economy grows when there are no basic protections for its citizens?”

Ai Weiwei

2000-09, An Artist’s Ordeal. 2009

“They have to have an enemy. They have to create you as their enemy in order for them to continue their existence. It’s very ironic.”

Ai Weiwei

“ Ai Weiwei Talks Revolution, Shanghai Studio in New Time Out: HK. http://shanghaiist.com/2011/03/14/ai_weiwei_talks_revolution_shanghai.php” Time Out: Hong Kong, March 14, 2011.
2010-, 2011

“To protect the right of expression is the central part of an artist’s activity..... In China many essential rights are lacking, and I wanted to remind people of this.”

Ai Weiwei

2000-09, Who Is Ai Weiwei?, 2009

People , Parting

“Measuring national prestige by gold medals is like using Viagra to judge the potency of a man.”

Ai Weiwei

“ Gold Is Not the Real Measure of a Nation http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/aug/25/olympics2008.china,” Guardian, August 25, 2008.
2000-09, 2008

“My work has always been political, because the choice of being an artist is political in China.”

Ai Weiwei

2000-09, Escape from Propaganda, 2009

“Art is not an end but a beginning.”

Ai Weiwei

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

Art

“It’s never about me. [My supporters] use me as a mark for themselves to recognize their own form of life: I become their medium. I am always very clear about that.”

Ai Weiwei

Jones, Alice. “ Ten People Who Changed the World: Ai Weiwei, Chinese Artist, Became a Truly Global Force http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/ten-people-who-changed-the-world-ai-weiwei-chinese-artist-became-a-truly-global-force-6282327.html.” Independent, December 31, 2011.
2010-, 2011

Life , Support

“It’s really life and death [not art]. When they tell you your mother is 80 years old but you cannot see her again, you can never call it performance art. Or when your son is three, and they tell you that when you are released he will be in his teens and can never recognize you as a father. You feel terrible inside, to lose those chances. Each day, they tell you, 'You will spend your life day after day the same, minute after minute the same. You just have to pay [with] your life for this kind of so-called freedom that you are fighting for.”

Ai Weiwei

There is no sense of justice there. Why do I have to do this with them? Why do I have to argue or play this game?"
2010-, You’re There but You’re Not Existing, 2012

Life , Death , Justice , Art

“But the internet is like a tree that is growing. The people will always have the last word – even if someone has a very weak, quiet voice.”

Ai Weiwei

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

People , Tree

“House arrest, travel restrictions, surveillance, stopping phone service, cutting the Internet connection. What we can still do is greet the crazy motherland once again.”

Ai Weiwei

Ai Weiwei on Twitter in English (beta). http://aiwwenglish.tumblr.com/ (December 9, 2010)
2010-, Twitter feeds, 2010-12

Travel , Housing

“I don’t have this concept that separates my art from my daily life. They are one thing to me. They are always one. How do you find the way to express yourself and how to communicate with others?”

Ai Weiwei

2010-, Ai Weiwei Does Not Feel Powerful, 2011

Life , Art , Way , Communication

“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.”

Ai Weiwei

" Living in Fear Is Worse Than Imprisonment http://mg.co.za/article/2012-06-28-living-in-fear-is-worse-than-imprisonment." Mail and Guardian, June 29, 2012.
2010-, 2012

Stupidity , Nature , Freedom

“I’m not sure I’m good at art, but I find an escape in it.”

Ai Weiwei

Barboza, David, and Lynn Zhang. “ The Clown Scholar: Ai Weiwei http://www.artzinechina.com/display.php?a=180..” ArtzineChina, 2008.
2000-09, 2008

Art

“The worst thing about Beijing is that you can never trust the judicial system. Without trust, you cannot identify anything; it’s like a sandstorm. You don’t see yourself as part of the city—there are no places that you relate to, that you love to go. You have no memory of any material, texture, shape. Everything is constantly changing, according to somebody else’s will, somebody else’s power.”

Ai Weiwei

2010-, The City: Beijing, 2011

Love , Memory , Change , Parting

“"It became like a symbolic thing, to be “an artist.” After Duchamp, I realized that being an artist is more about a lifestyle and attitude than producing some product."”

Ai Weiwei

Karen Smith et al. Ai Weiwei (Contemporary Artists (Phaidon), London: Phaidon Press, 2009.
2000-09, 2009