I don’t want the next generation to fight the same fight as I did.
AI WEIWEII saw [Allen Ginsberg] more as an old man who liked poetry and who had a lot of physical and emotional problems. We liked our time together.
More Ai Weiwei Quotes
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I loved New York — every inch of it. It was a little bit scary at that time, but still, the excitement was so strong — visually and intellectually. It was like a monster.
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I always want people to be confused, to be shocked or realize something later.
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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.
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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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It is not an easy job to govern China, I am aware of that. There are crises and emergencies all the time, we might not even be aware of some. But I am afraid we’ll have to wait and observe precisely what the government is up to.
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Without freedom of speech, there is no modern world, just a barbaric one.
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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.
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If I look at it, I would laugh. I don’t know how I became successful.
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In my case, I was stuck there for quite a while. New York is large enough to be a very abstract city, so nobody cares.
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You can never know what is and what is not powerful, but you can always find out what the powerful people are scared of.
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The Internet is the best thing that ever happened to China. It turns us into individuals and also enables us to share our perceptions and feelings. It creates a culture of individualism and exchange even though the real society doesn’t promote it.
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The purpose of art is the fight for freedom.
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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.
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I think by not letting young people be fully informed, how can they have energy and passion and the right picture of the world? I think that’s the true crime.
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I think my stance and my way of life is my most important art.
AI WEIWEI