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 WEIWEII came back [to Beijing ] because that’s the only time I had an excuse to come back, or otherwise I would never have a reason to come back.
More Ai Weiwei Quotes
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I never really read Allen Ginsberg poetry, even though I have a book he gave me.
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I think it’s a responsibility for any artist to protect freedom of expression and to use any way to extend this power.
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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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It became like a symbolic thing, to be “an artist.” After Duchamp, I realized that being an artist is more about a lifestyle and attitude than producing some product.
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I hope that my work expresses my worldview and encourages people to exchange ideas.
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And the kind of condition he had when he was in this society – the kind of mistreatment society gave him.
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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.
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For years, I refused to go to any openings, not even my own.
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We move so fast that memory is something we can only grasp
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It’s the place they take you before they give you over to the judicial system. You stay there for a year or two and they make you really suffer to confess everything.
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I never think any place is better than others.
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The United States is a melting pot. Like John F. Kennedy said, it’s a nation of immigrants. But Donald Trump wants to build a fence that clearly makes the statement: “You and I are divided.
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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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The society was so different [in China] – it was a feudalistic society. It didn’t come to a point of industrial revolution until twenty years ago.
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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