Say what you say plainly, and then take responsibility for it.
AI WEIWEIEven though everybody who looked at me would call me a Chinese artist, that’s the 1980s. New York in the ’80s was not so interesting.
More Ai Weiwei Quotes
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Behind every political deal in this country, the first casualties are always the ordinary people, who are barely treated as human.
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Of course, people will call you an old artist or young artist, which is just a character of you.
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A society is healthy only when it allows its members to discuss their thoughts openly. This is also the only way that a society can gather consensus, let everyone express his or her wish, and foster creativity.
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To call yourself a Chinese artist or woman artist or African artist reflects a certain kind of condition. To me, that is not necessary.
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I think by not letting young people be fully informed, how can they have energy and passion and the right picture of the world? I think that’s the true crime.
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Politics is like air and water. And you know if there is bad politics. Everyone is polluted. Everyone is unhealthy. See the people walking on the street: how they act.
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You’re still being looked at as somebody who – it’s a very complicated issue.
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We should use this public sphere and redefine – beyond China’s borders – what a government is allowed to do, where its powers end and where the realm of a citizen’s privacy begins.
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I spend a lot of time talking to journalists.
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In my life, I often make so-called major decisions by very quick, immediate responses.
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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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Overturning police cars is a super-intense workout. It’s probably the only sport I enjoy.
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The relationship between the Chinese government and me is like a Cold War.
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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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I wouldn’t say I’ve become more radical: I was born radical.
AI WEIWEI