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Everyone thinks the Chinese government selected me. Never ever. I was selected by Herzog and de Meuron.

Ai Weiwei

You start to see the society, how it functions, how it works. Then you have a lot of criticism about how it works.
AI WEIWEI

Criticism Function Money Society Star Turn Work
Warhol influenced me because of his writing. If I had never read his writings and interviews, I would never have understood his work.
AI WEIWEI

Influence Interview Understood Warhol Work Writing
My typical day is I wake up and appreciate that I can still wake up.
AI WEIWEI

Appreciate Typical Wake Up
In this kind of dictatorship, in this kind of totalitarian society, it is easy to make deals that you cannot make in a democratic society.
AI WEIWEI

Deal Democratic Dictatorship Kind Society Totalitarian
Selling high or low doesn’t mean anything. It has to do purely with the market.
AI WEIWEI

Anything High Market Mean Purely Selling
I think everybody deserves freedom. Freedom is such an abstract word, but it’s all we need.
AI WEIWEI

Abstract Art Everybody Freedom Need Thinking
I lived there [ in New York City] as an artist, but never as a Chinese artist.
AI WEIWEI

Artist Cities New York
I never felt like a Chinese citizen because I was pushed away at a very young age. My father, a writer, was a national enemy of the Communist Party. He was forbidden to write for 20 years.
AI WEIWEI

Citizen Father Party Pushed Writer Writing Young
China restricts the society’s freedom of speech. The Communist Party imposes these limits because it lacks confidence towards the future and has no ideals.
AI WEIWEI

Communist Confidence Creativity Decision Freedom Imposes Lack Limit Party Speech
Mass production is nothing new. Weren’t cathedrals built through mass production? The pyramids?
AI WEIWEI

Cathedral Hand Mass People Production Pyramid
In my case, I was stuck there for quite a while. New York is large enough to be a very abstract city, so nobody cares.
AI WEIWEI

Abstract Care City Country Enough Large Nobody Quite Stuck
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.
AI WEIWEI

Before Confess Everything Judicial Over Place Stay Suffer System
The relationship between the Chinese government and me is like a Cold War.
AI WEIWEI

Chinese Cold Government Relationship War
People who can’t do that don’t get a sense of responsibility. And if you lack a sense of responsibility, you push the blame onto the system.
AI WEIWEI

Blame People Responsibility Sense System
There are many cases and layers of racist behavior in the US – from police treatment to the issues of education and job opportunities. In America, however, such cases are being discussed publically.
AI WEIWEI

Country Education Issue Job Opportunity Racist Treatment
Overturning police cars is a super-intense workout. It’s probably the only sport I enjoy.
AI WEIWEI

Car Enjoy Overturning Police Probably Sport Super-intense Workout

Everyone thinks the Chinese government selected me. Never ever. I was selected by Herzog and de Meuron.

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Everyone thinks the Chinese government selected me. Never ever. I was selected by Herzog and de Meuron.

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Popular Authors

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