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After I came back [to China], there was still a long period of time when I felt I had nothing to do.

Ai Weiwei

If there’s the right condition, I always want to express the concept or ideas in a very independent way.
AI WEIWEI

Always Condition Ideas Independent Right Want Way
I spent a lot of time standing on street corners [of New York City] talking to local residents. I spent time in bookstores and galleries. But most of the time, I really did not have much to do.
AI WEIWEI

Cities Country Talking Local Resident Spent Time
I never regret anything.
AI WEIWEI

Anything never Regret
I never felt like a Chinese citizen because I was pushed away at a very young age. My father, a writer, was a national enemy of the Communist Party. He was forbidden to write for 20 years.
AI WEIWEI

Citizen Father Party Pushed Writer Writing Young
Choices after waking up: To be true or to lie? To take action or be brainwashed? To be free or be jailed?
AI WEIWEI

Brainwashed Choice Free Jailed Lying Wake Walking
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.
AI WEIWEI

Artwork Feeling Proud Relly Single Think Thinking Want
Today, the general masses in this society are in this political-social condition that really encourages people to become rich and become a star and be unique.
AI WEIWEI

Condition Encourage General Masses People Society Star Unique
I’m totally independent. I don’t bear any responsibility to any system.
AI WEIWEI

Bear Independent Responsibility System Totally
I don’t like China. Even today, I still feel I have no emotional relations with this place.
AI WEIWEI

Country Emotional Place Relation Today
You’re still being looked at as somebody who – it’s a very complicated issue.
AI WEIWEI

Complicated Issue Looked Somebody Still
Somehow, we [ Tan Dun and director Chen Kaige] were all privileged at the time; we could be outside of China. But at the moment, we had no sense of what the future was going to be like.
AI WEIWEI

Country Director Future Going Moment Outside Priilied Somehow Time
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.
AI WEIWEI

Backward Form Geographical Human Mountain Ocean Protected Right Speech
That’s why I always question this sense. The feeling of home really requires a lot of trust. It requires you to identify with it, which I always find myself very contradictory to.
AI WEIWEI

Contradictory Feeling Home Identity Question Require Sense Trust
Self-censorship is insulting to the self. Timidity is a hopeless way forward.
AI WEIWEI

Censorship Forward Hopeless Insulting Self Timidity Way
If a nation cannot face its past, it has no future.
AI WEIWEI

Face Future Nation Past
These folks are creative and ironic, and the government can ultimately not control what is going on in their heads.
AI WEIWEI

Control Creative Folk Government Head Ironic Ultimately

After I came back [to China], there was still a long period of time when I felt I had nothing to do.

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After I came back [to China], there was still a long period of time when I felt I had nothing to do.

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