For years, I refused to go to any openings, not even my own.
AI WEIWEIIf there is no free speech, every single life has lived in vain
More Ai Weiwei Quotes
-
-
I think optimism is whether you are still exhilarated by life, whether you are curious, whether you still believe there is possibility.
AI WEIWEI -
You only have temporary curiosity, amusement, and challenges, but that does not necessarily mean you are really convinced that it’s necessary or that it’s not even worth to do it.
AI WEIWEI -
The deadly weapon against totalitarian society is openness – doing everything very openly on the Internet, letting people know every detail, any little development. Once it is out there, everybody can make their own judgement.
AI WEIWEI -
If my art has nothing to do with people’s pain and sorrow, what is ‘art’ for?
AI WEIWEI -
We literally lived underground. We dug a hole and lived there for years. My father cleaned public toilets, even though he was a highly respected poet.
AI WEIWEI -
I have to respect my life, and free expression is part of my life. I can never really silence myself.
AI WEIWEI -
If I really have nothing to do, I just watch my cats, take some photos, and go back to my personal blog.
AI WEIWEI -
In the end, I think, the state’s rigidity is a function of its own insecurity, its indecisiveness.
AI WEIWEI -
Democracy, material wealth, and universal education are the soil upon which modernism exists.
AI WEIWEI -
[Therefore] holding a trial outside the court. I think that is fairness, that is justice, that is a civil society. Otherwise call it an evil society because everything is hidden.
AI WEIWEI -
The [China] government has improved in the last years. Of course, the structure is still the same; there’s still a one-party system and strong censorship.
AI WEIWEI -
We’re different, and you’re dangerous.” That kind of thinking stops human, civilized evolution. It’s dangerous to create that kind of tension.
AI WEIWEI -
They lack any ability to sense what is beautiful or what is proper. They can be learned and skillful, but they lack the ability to make their own free judgment. It is really sad to see young adults of 20, 25 years who were never taught to make their own decisions.
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 -
You’re still being looked at as somebody who – it’s a very complicated issue.
AI WEIWEI