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.
AI WEIWEIIn the end, I think, the state’s rigidity is a function of its own insecurity, its indecisiveness.
More Ai Weiwei Quotes
-
-
Behind every political deal in this country, the first casualties are always the ordinary people, who are barely treated as human.
AI WEIWEI -
Self-censorship is insulting to the self. Timidity is a hopeless way forward.
AI WEIWEI -
Even 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.
AI WEIWEI -
A historical property has morals and ethics of the society that created it and it can be revived. What I mean is that we can discover new possibilities from the process of dismantling, transforming, and recreating.
AI WEIWEI -
Paintings can be painted with the left hand, the right hand, someone else’s hand, or many people’s hands. The scale of production is irrelevant to its content.
AI WEIWEI -
Technology is a liberation. I think the information age probably is the best thing to happen to the human race in human evolution.
AI WEIWEI -
The so-called culture nowadays is only a fake one with a superficial front. It is an empty lie.
AI WEIWEI -
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.
AI WEIWEI -
He will still mean danger. Modern technology requires calm. You shouldn’t trust anyone with a car who has no knowledge about vehicles or roads.
AI WEIWEI -
I never really read Allen Ginsberg poetry, even though I have a book he gave me.
AI WEIWEI -
I deal with students every day – from China, Germany, the United States, Hong Kong and Taiwan. And I’ve noticed that the Chinese students are the least trained in having a sense of aesthetics.
AI WEIWEI -
We move so fast that memory is something we can only grasp
AI WEIWEI -
It also makes humanity much more safe. If we see pureness somewhere as something to be desired, the trouble starts.
AI WEIWEI -
I have always stated I designed the stadium as a toilet seat.
AI WEIWEI -
What is important is that we actively express our thoughts and wishes, in every realm that we can access.
AI WEIWEI -
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.
AI WEIWEI -
Life is art. Art is life. I never separate it.
AI WEIWEI -
During the days in detention, I thought most about the moon.
AI WEIWEI -
Life is much more interesting when you make a little bit of effort.
AI WEIWEI -
A nation like China has become one of the biggest production fields for exporting cheap labor, which also re-questions our history and past, re-questions human desire, and the human illusions of the past.
AI WEIWEI -
Everything is selected by the central government without good judgment or an understanding of culture to make it really safe. They will become nobody to maintain their power and be raised to the next higher level.
AI WEIWEI -
I’m doing quite a few things now. In one day, I will go to Kassel, Germany, for a documentary project I’ve been preparing for half a year.
AI WEIWEI -
I don’t think my father had a direct influence on me, but I do think, more or less, I was influenced by his independent individualism.
AI WEIWEI -
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.
AI WEIWEI -
People have been longing for this moment, because it symbolises a turning point in China’s relationship with the outside world.
AI WEIWEI -
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