“I have to find a place for my own. I have to search for my own happiness.”

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

I think U.S. and China is a big opportunity, to be seen as partner or some kind of strategic partner maybe. But those kind of powers have a way of getting too big, then we’ll have competition.

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.

There isn’t a single Chinese university that can invite me to give a talk. Even though I know there are many students who would like to hear what I have to say.

These folks are creative and ironic, and the government can ultimately not control what is going on in their heads.

People have been longing for this moment, because it symbolises a turning point in China’s relationship with the outside world.

[Museums] all belongs to the cultural department, which is the biggest cultural department in the world.

I curated this show [Shanghai Biennale ], I was by no means trying to shock people or be controversial.

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.

Nationality started as something natural, but we should not be restrained by the old politics that make up these clear lines. It should have its own way of evolving. In some places, it will evolve slower and in others, faster.

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.

Through my work and ways of expression, I strive to engage in dialogue with the society that I am living in.

A few thousand are to be built in the next few years, all using taxpayer money. But there is no system, no research, no content, no good programs, no good managers.

I don’t think China should care if this crazy old guy should have a show here or not.

I think art is a very important weapon to achieve human freedom

People have a tendency to become elite rather than to care about the general conditions of the society, which makes me sick. It’s an unbearable condition.

The first thing that a person finds in life and the last to which he holds out his hand.

And I’m like, “I don’t know. That’s just the way I am.” So if I found the perfect girl she would totally get that and say, “You’re quiet, and that’s the way I love you.

You write to find out what you believe.

Someone once said that the joy is not in writing but in having written. I can’t say I find that to be true, though I understand the sentiment.

If you don’t find a way to break the chain and change in some way, then you wind up, as the rhyme goes: a murder of one, for sorrow.

He is trying to find me, overcoming a great obstacle – pushing away, as it were, a huge block of stone weighing a ton. Such a man is a real hero.

We find our power in the same place as our pain.

I am always struggling in finding time to daily grow in my faith. If you are not in the Word or focusing on Christ, or into prayer, you can’t help but slip at times.