Ai Weiwei Quotes, Beautiful Quotes, Heart Quotes

Many people I know - writers, poets - they have all been sentenced not once but sometimes three times after they come out. They serve five or six years, come out another time, and then nine years. Come out again, 12 years. Only because they have a different opinion. They are innocent people, they have beautiful minds, beautiful hearts.

5 years ago

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Tags : Ai Weiwei Quotes , Beautiful Quotes , Heart Quotes

Chinese citizens have never had the right to really express their opinions; in the constitution it says you can, but in the real world it is more dangerous. In the west people think it's a right they're born with. Here it's a right given by the government, and one that's not really practised.

5 years ago

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Tags : Ai Weiwei Quotes , Real Quotes , Thinking Quotes

I suddenly realized I was getting ten opening notes a day on my mobile phone, more than when I was in New York. But this is China, where nothing is surprising.

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Tags : Ai Weiwei Quotes , New York Quotes , Phones Quotes

Widespread state control over art and culture has left no room for freedom of expression in the country. For more than 60 years, anyone with a dissenting opinion has been suppressed. Chinese art is merely a product: it avoids any meaningful engagement. There is no larger context. Its only purpose is to charm viewers with its ambiguity.

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Tags : Ai Weiwei Quotes , Meaningful Quotes , Country Quotes

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

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Tags : Ai Weiwei Quotes , Democracy Quotes , Soil Quotes

Freedom of expression is a very essential condition for me to make any art. Also, it is an essential value for my life. I have to protect this right and also to fight for the possibility.

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Tags : Ai Weiwei Quotes , Art Quotes , Fighting Quotes

Even if I have hundreds of things to do, the disconnected feeling is still there because it is very hard to find a real purpose of life.

5 years ago

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Tags : Ai Weiwei Quotes , Real Quotes , Feelings Quotes

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.

5 years ago

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Tags : Ai Weiwei Quotes , Giving Up Quotes , Thinking Quotes

In a society like this there is no negotiation, no discussion, except to tell you that power can crush you any time they want — not only you, your whole family and all people like you.

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Tags : Ai Weiwei Quotes , Crush Quotes , People Quotes

In the end, I think, the state's rigidity is a function of its own insecurity, its indecisiveness.

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Tags : Ai Weiwei Quotes , Thinking Quotes , Insecurity Quotes

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.

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Tags : Ai Weiwei Quotes , Attitude Quotes , Artist Quotes

Any individual can contribute its own belief. And our society or even our government are made by the people. The people would have the final voice, but it requires each individual to act. If we don't act, then the result is very clear. So for too long Americans take liberty as granted. We think we are in the safe hand, the democracy and the liberty, which is not true. And it can be even getting much worse than today.

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Tags : Ai Weiwei Quotes , Thinking Quotes , Long Quotes

If there is no freedom of expression, then the beauty of life is lost. Participation in a society is not an artistic choice, it’s a human need.

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Tags : Ai Weiwei Quotes , Expression Quotes , Choices Quotes

Of course, there [in China] has to be chaos. It has to be crazy, and I don't think there's anything wrong about it except this government, which is really incapable of doing anything meaningful.

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Tags : Ai Weiwei Quotes , Meaningful Quotes , Crazy Quotes

I'm most embarrassed at my art shows, even though I don't show it.

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

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Tags : Ai Weiwei Quotes , Responsibility Quotes , Artist Quotes

We live in changing times, and many people experience the challenges that come with it. In the face of uncertain futures, no one will know what to expect.

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Tags : Ai Weiwei Quotes , People Quotes , Challenges Quotes

Everything is art. Everything is politics.

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Creativity is part of human nature. It can only be untaught.

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Tags : Ai Weiwei Quotes , Creativity Quotes , Human Nature Quotes

I don't belong to a working system. They only select people if you belong to one so you can be controlled.

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Tags : Ai Weiwei Quotes , People Quotes , Select Quotes