I think Allen [Ginsberg] was a person who’s like a child.
AI WEIWEIIn this kind of dictatorship, in this kind of totalitarian society, it is easy to make deals that you cannot make in a democratic society.
More Ai Weiwei Quotes
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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.
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There are no outdoor sports as graceful as throwing stones at a dictatorship.
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Self-censorship is insulting to the self. Timidity is a hopeless way forward.
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We are not on – even just a step away from the most brutal and primitive crudity. To be very crude on those issues, which is always challenges and we always have to look at the situation like a mirror, to draw some understanding.
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I am very much interested in the so-called useless object. I mean, it takes perfect craftsmanship, beautiful material carefully measured and crafted, but at the same time it’s really useless.
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[Being unique] gives so much privilege to people who can make it, rather than having some moral and aesthetic discussions.
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I think it’s more important to show your work to the public.
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I curated this show [Shanghai Biennale ], I was by no means trying to shock people or be controversial.
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They’ve become part of a conspiracy, collaborators of the crime, which is lying to the general public and trying to hide the kind of criminal acts happening in many cases.
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The freedom of speech is an important yardstick for a society’s level of civilization.
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If my art has nothing to do with people’s pain and sorrow, what is ‘art’ for?
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Democracy, material wealth, and universal education are the soil upon which modernism exists.
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This world should be much more open and should be much more free, so the young people would have the chance to exercise the quality of their lives.
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Through my work and ways of expression, I strive to engage in dialogue with the society that I am living in.
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So, the politicians and the people who make decisions very often is the one we think can make some difference. But of course they will not make a difference if the citizens or the individuals not push it or not to speak out, to possess a very strong voice about, this is not acceptable.
AI WEIWEI