Ai Weiwei Quotes, Crazy Quotes, Cities Quotes

Destroy or build. Crazy or noncrazy. I'm not nostalgic about the old city. I don't enjoy it that much.

6 years ago

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Tags : Ai Weiwei Quotes , Crazy Quotes , Cities Quotes

Say what you say plainly, and then take responsibility for it.

6 years ago

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Tags : Ai Weiwei Quotes , Responsibility Quotes

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

6 years ago

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Tags : Ai Weiwei Quotes , Lying Quotes , Choices Quotes

If there is no free speech, every single life has lived in vain

6 years ago

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Tags : Ai Weiwei Quotes , Single Life Quotes , Speech Quotes

I don't think I was very structured in that society and I don't really believe in personal success, which most Americans believe in.

6 years ago

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Tags : Ai Weiwei Quotes , Believe Quotes , Thinking Quotes

What is important is that we actively express our thoughts and wishes, in every realm that we can access.

6 years ago

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Tags : Ai Weiwei Quotes , Important Quotes , Wish Quotes

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

6 years ago

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Tags : Ai Weiwei Quotes , Meaningful Quotes , People Quotes

My definition of art has always been the same. It is about freedom of expression, a new way of communication. It is never about exhibiting in museums or about hanging it on the wall. Art should live in the heart of the people. Ordinary people should have the same ability to understand art as anybody else. I don’t think art is elite or mysterious. I don’t think anybody can separate art from politics. The intention to separate art from politics is itself a very political intention.

6 years ago

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Tags : Ai Weiwei Quotes , Art Quotes , Wall Quotes

I was in the most restricted prison in China, the most tough. The design of the prison is modeled for internal crimes of the Communist party, so it's like a mafia family's law. It's independent to the law this nation openly applies. It's the place they take you before they give you over to the judicial system. You stay there for a year or two and they make you really suffer to confess everything.

6 years ago

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Tags : Ai Weiwei Quotes , Party Quotes , Independent Quotes

A lot of the time [in the U.S.], I was thinking about how spending time is always questionable or is always the biggest obstacle in my life.

6 years ago

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Tags : Ai Weiwei Quotes , Thinking Quotes , Obstacles Quotes

I grew up in a desert, which has no kind of imagination.

6 years ago

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Tags : Ai Weiwei Quotes , Imagination Quotes , Desert Quotes

I always thought that in modern history Chinese people are like a dish of sand, never really close together. But I think a dish of sand is a good metaphor because we have the Internet. We don't have to be physically united. You can be an individual and have your own set of values but join others in certain struggles. There is nothing more powerful than that.

6 years ago

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Tags : Ai Weiwei Quotes , Powerful Quotes , Struggle Quotes

Society becomes very destructive.

6 years ago

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...photographs are facts, but not necessarily true... The present always surpasses the past, and the future will not care about today.

6 years ago

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Tags : Ai Weiwei Quotes , Past Quotes , Care Quotes

China spends a lot of resources and effort on gaining soft power over culture. The hope is that it can be the last lifeline for the Party's survival. Obviously, the idea will fail.

6 years ago

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Tags : Ai Weiwei Quotes , Party Quotes , Ideas Quotes

Democracy, material wealth, and universal education are the soil upon which modernism exists.

6 years ago

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Tags : Ai Weiwei Quotes , Democracy Quotes , Soil Quotes

If I walk on the street, if I go to a restaurant, people come to me and say: "Can we take a photo together? Can you give me your autograph?" They would bring their expensive Armani or Prada wallet to sign. Other people who are desperate show me a photo of their dead daughter and ask: Can you support me? I tell them: How can I? Morally, of course, I sympathize with you. But I cannot support you and you cannot support me. This is the condition of this society. We are separated.

6 years ago

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Tags : Ai Weiwei Quotes , Daughter Quotes , Support You Quotes

In my life, I often make so-called major decisions by very quick, immediate responses.

6 years ago

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Tags : Ai Weiwei Quotes , Decision Quotes , Response Quotes

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.

6 years ago

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Tags : Ai Weiwei Quotes , Winning Quotes , Stupidity Quotes

I think it’s a responsibility for any artist to protect freedom of expression and to use any way to extend this power.

6 years ago

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Tags : Ai Weiwei Quotes , Responsibility Quotes , Artist Quotes