“It’s like the mountains, the ocean and the rivers. It has its own geological forms. Societies cannot be flat. But during change, human rights, human dignity and free speech have to be protected. Otherwise, we’ll be going backward.”

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 media is the message. It carries the full intention and the meaning. Once you change it…it’s very disturbing.

We move so fast that memory is something we can only grasp

The intention to separate art from politics is itself a very political intention.

I have always stated I designed the stadium as a toilet seat.

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

There’s no single artwork I even want to mention or that I can even really think about it to have any feeling, to be proud of it.

I think of art as coming from daily life, daily experience. I think it’s very important not to have it become work for some kind of elite circle.

We never really see the global situation as a total situation. Today’s political leaders are still lacking of the vision.

In life you are either growing or rotting. You’re moving forward or backwards; there is no standing still.

The Dharma Path is to keep walking forward. But the true Dharma has no going forward, no going backward, and no standing still.

Take one step backward into the unknown.

There is no illusion so permanent as that which enables us to look backward with complacency; there is no mental process so deceptive as the comparing of recollections with realities.

If everybody floated with the tide of talk, placidity would soon end in stagnation. It is the strong backward stroke which stirs the ripples, and gives animation and variety.

There are those who say that children make a rich man poor. No, they have it backward.

It won’t be decided in one election, but it is a basic choice between an open and progressive Iraq and one that is backward and continues to fall behind.

Only I can’t do them so I ended up on my ass followed by the most unsightly backward roll out of it, followed by the cast falling over in laughter and a good portion of the audience too.