Ai Weiwei Quotes (218 quotes, page 3) | Quotes of famous people

Ai Weiwei: 218 quotes39 likes

Ai Weiwei Quotes

“Police in China can do whatever they want; after 81 days in arbitrary detention you clearly realise that they don’t have to obey their own laws.”

Ai Weiwei

2010-, China’s ‘Mozart’ Drops Off State Hit Parade, 2010

“One of the reasons religions are widely accepted is spiritual laziness and its resulting fear.”

Ai Weiwei

Ai Weiwei on Twitter in English (beta). (December 24, 2010) http://aiwwenglish.tumblr.com/
2010-, Twitter feeds, 2010-12

“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 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

“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

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

Ai Weiwei

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

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

Ai Weiwei

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

“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

“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

“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

“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

“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

“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

“A small act is worth a million thoughts.”

Ai Weiwei

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

“I cannot ever accept the kind of conditions where you can sacrifice someone’s rights.”

Ai Weiwei

2010-, Ai Weiwei: The Dissident, 2011

“Because of the economic crisis, China and the United States are bound together. This is a totally new phenomenon, and nobody will fight for ideology anymore. It’s all about business.”

Ai Weiwei

2000-09, Who Is Ai Weiwei?, 2009

“Once again, the facts have been erased.”

Ai Weiwei

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

“Any power or structure that seeks to maintain full control and is not open in any way to loosening its power eventually makes itself ridiculous.”

Ai Weiwei

2000-09, Truth to Power, 2008

“No autocracy can lead people to believe that they are living in harmony and happiness.”

Ai Weiwei

Ai Weiwei. “ The Olympics Are a Propaganda Show http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,531883,00.html.” Spiegel, January 29, 2008. 2000-09, 2008

“The world is a sphere, there is no East or West.”

Ai Weiwei

“ No Fake: An Interview with Ai Weiwei http://www.portlandart.net/archives/2010/08/no_fake_an_inte.html.” Portland Art, September 8, 2010. 2010-, 2010

“Consider why the quality of school dinners is declining, even as more and more golf courses are opened.”

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

“I tell people that because you don’t bear any responsibility, you put me in danger. If we all say the same thing, then I think the government has to listen. But because no one is saying it, I become singled out, even though what I’m saying is common sense. It’s very essential values that we all have to protect. But in Chinese society, people are giving up on protecting these values.”

Ai Weiwei

2000-09, Who Is Ai Weiwei?, 2009

“People have said, if you leave, you may never come back. Or they may not even let you leave. So this is always a cost you may have to pay. But I don’t want to restrict myself: When it happens, it happens. I have to deal with it, but not to prepare for it, because it is a kind of stupidity. If you prepare for it too much, you become a part of it.”

Ai Weiwei

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

“I often ask myself if I am afraid of being detained again. I love freedom as much as anybody else, maybe more than most. But it is a tragedy to live your life in fear. It is worse than actually losing your freedom.”

Ai Weiwei

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

“Freedom of speech implies the world isn’t defined. It is meaningful when people are allowed to see the world their way.”

Ai Weiwei

Ai Weiwei Twitter feed: @AiWW (8:16 p.m. December 22, 2011).
2010-, Twitter feeds, 2010-12

“Beijing is two cities. One is of power and of money. People don’t care who their neighbors are; they don’t trust you. The other city is one of desperation. I see people on public buses, and I see their eyes, and I see they hold no hope. They can’t even imagine that they’ll be able to buy a house. They come from very poor villages where they’ve never seen electricity or toilet paper.”

Ai Weiwei

2010-, The City: Beijing, 2011

“The government computer has one button: delete.”

Ai Weiwei

Zhang, Qichen. “ Ai Weiwei Says Censorship in China Will Ultimately Fail http://opennet.net/blog/2012/04/ai-weiwei-says-censorship-china-will-ultimately-fail.” Opennet, April 18, 2012. 2010-, 2012

“Contemporary art and the [Communist] Party are an impossible situation. It’s like oil and water—they can never mix.”

Ai Weiwei

2000-09, Truth to Power, 2008

“The world is not changing if you don’t shoulder the burden of responsibility.”

Ai Weiwei

Ai Weiwei Twitter feed: @AiWW(4:19 p.m. December 2, 2009).
2000-09, Twitter feeds, 2009

“Choices after waking up: To be true or to lie? To take action or be brainwashed? To be free or be jailed?”

Ai Weiwei

Ai Weiwei Twitter feed: @AiWW (8:50 a.m. September 5, 2009)
2000-09, Twitter feeds, 2009

“The government may be made up of clever, sensible people. But if they do not believe in basic human values, the more clever or shrewd they are the greater the tragedy they will create.”

Ai Weiwei

2000-09, Truth to Power, 2008

“The Chinese authorities think of artists as prostitutes. And in reality it’s true: in the Communist system artists just represent what the power structure seeks them to represent. It is prostitution.”

Ai Weiwei

2000-09, Truth to Power, 2008

“The disaster-makers always get away, while the innocent are always punished.”

Ai Weiwei

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

“Self-censorship is insulting to the self. Timidity is a hopeless way forward.”

Ai Weiwei

2000-09, Truth to Power, 2008

“Myself, I try to search for the new way, always trying to set up a new possibility and to find the new tools to express myself. To reach a broader audience.”

Ai Weiwei

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

“I will never leave China, unless I am forced to. Because China is mine. I will not leave something that belongs to me in the hands of people I do not trust.”

Ai Weiwei

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

“From my experience dealing with Sichuan [after the 2008 earthquake] I started to understand very clearly the character of local government. They will do anything. You will never really wrongly accuse them of anything because they do everything.”

Ai Weiwei

Branigan, Tania. “ Accounts Invaded, Computers Infected—Human Rights Activists Tell of Cyber Attacks http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jan/14/china-human-rights-activists-cyber-attack.” Guardian, January 14, 2010. 2010-, 2010

“I think art certainly is the vehicle for us to develop any new ideas, to be creative, to extend our imagination, to change the current conditions.”

Ai Weiwei

2010-, Ai Weiwei Does Not Feel Powerful, 2011

“Three years after the CCTV headquarters fire [in Beijing in February 2009], human skeletons lie forgotten. Is anyone accountable?”

Ai Weiwei

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

“To me, to be political means you associate your work with a larger number of people’s living conditions, and that includes both mental and physical conditions. And you try to use your work to affect the situation.”

Ai Weiwei

2000-09, Escape from Propaganda, 2009

“Tax crimes should be investigated by the tax bureau, not through secret police detention.”

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

“I think restrictions are an essential condition in the fight for freedom of expression. It’s also a source for any kind of creativity.”

Ai Weiwei

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

“The officials want China to be seen as a cultured, creative nation, but in this anti-liberal political society everything outside the direct control of the state is seen as a potential threat.”

Ai Weiwei

2010-, China’s ‘Mozart’ Drops Off State Hit Parade, 2010

“Cover-ups and deception are the nature of this society. Without lies it won’t exist.”

Ai Weiwei

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

“Only with the Internet can a peasant I have never met hear my voice and I can learn what’s on his mind. A fairy tale has come true.”

Ai Weiwei

2000-09, The Bold and the Beautiful, 2009