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.
AI WEIWEIMy typical day is I wake up and appreciate that I can still wake up.
More Ai Weiwei Quotes
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If a nation cannot face its past, it has no future.
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The American experience influenced my understanding of individuality, basic human rights, freedom of expression and the rights and responsibilities of citizens.
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I think art is a very important weapon to achieve human freedom
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You start to see the society, how it functions, how it works. Then you have a lot of criticism about how it works.
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The art always wins. Anything can happen to me, but the art will stay.
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Each year, more people want to become artists.
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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.
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Society becomes very destructive.
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Life is art. Art is life. I never separate it.
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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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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.
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We move so fast that memory is something we can only grasp
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To call yourself a Chinese artist or woman artist or African artist reflects a certain kind of condition. To me, that is not necessary.
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Nationality and borders are barriers to our intelligence, to our imagination and to all kinds of possibilities.
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I think art certainly is the vehicle for us to develop any new ideas, to be creative, to extend our imagination, to change the current conditions.
AI WEIWEI






