Growing up, my family was an enemy of the state. I have experienced more disappointment than joy, much more sad stories or desperate conditions.
AI WEIWEIFreedom of expression is a very essential condition for me to make any art. Also, it is an essential value for my life. I have to protect this right and also to fight for the possibility.
More Ai Weiwei Quotes
-
-
Society becomes very destructive.
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 -
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.
AI WEIWEI -
It’s really rubbish that some kind of “technical” learning means you will be a better person because you know this skill better.
AI WEIWEI -
If we all say the same thing, then I think the government has to listen. But because no one is saying it, I become singled out, even though what I’m saying is common sense.
AI WEIWEI -
Liberty is about our rights to question everything.
AI WEIWEI -
I have to respect my life, and free expression is part of my life. I can never really silence myself.
AI WEIWEI -
A small act is worth a million thoughts.
AI WEIWEI -
China restricts the society’s freedom of speech. The Communist Party imposes these limits because it lacks confidence towards the future and has no ideals.
AI WEIWEI -
I think the pearls – one is a necklace, and another you have five hundred pounds of pearls, which may be one million pearls in a bowl – really show a kind of [society] condition.
AI WEIWEI -
My definition of art has always been the same. It is about freedom of expression, a new way of communication. It is never about exhibiting in museums or about hanging it on the wall.
AI WEIWEI -
We are not on – even just a step away from the most brutal and primitive crudity. To be very crude on those issues, which is always challenges and we always have to look at the situation like a mirror, to draw some understanding.
AI WEIWEI -
If my art has nothing to do with people’s pain and sorrow, what is ‘art’ for?
AI WEIWEI -
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 -
As a person, I was born to give out my opinions. By giving out my opinions, I realize who I am.
AI WEIWEI






