I think optimism is whether you are still exhilarated by life, whether you are curious, whether you still believe there is possibility.
AI WEIWEICreativity is the power to reject the past, to change the status quo, and to seek new potential. Simply put, aside from using one’s imagination – perhaps more importantly – creativity is the power to act.
More Ai Weiwei Quotes
-
-
Everyone thinks the Chinese government selected me. Never ever. I was selected by Herzog and de Meuron.
AI WEIWEI -
Civilization has evolved toward more acceptance, understanding and tolerance of global thinking. If we accept differences, our creativity booms. It makes life much more colorful.
AI WEIWEI -
For artists and intellectuals today, what is most needed is to be clear about social responsibility, because that is what most people automatically give up. Just to protect yourself as an individual is very political.
AI WEIWEI -
I was in the most restricted prison in China, the most tough. The design of the prison is modeled for internal crimes of the Communist party, so it’s like a mafia family’s law. It’s independent to the law this nation openly applies.
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 -
I wouldn’t say I’ve become more radical: I was born radical.
AI WEIWEI -
Democracy, material wealth, and universal education are the soil upon which modernism exists.
AI WEIWEI -
If civil society has nobody who protects the law, then what kind of society is that?
AI WEIWEI -
The only way to avoid misunderstanding, war and bloodshed is to defend freedom of expression and to communicate with sincerity, concern and good intentions.
AI WEIWEI -
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.
AI WEIWEI -
Man has a tendency to try to give clear reasons to be rational, but often you can see how all those reasons are not convincing and turn out to be a big nonsense.
AI WEIWEI -
I don’t think there is a distinct change, because in the West I’m not a person who can serve his purpose.
AI WEIWEI -
As long as I can communicate, I’m not so lonely. If I cannot travel, or do art, or have company, if they take away all my belongings, it doesn’t matter at all.
AI WEIWEI -
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.
AI WEIWEI -
Mass production is nothing new. Weren’t cathedrals built through mass production? The pyramids?
AI WEIWEI






