If a master, a wise and experienced man, wields a great weapon, that’s beautiful. He can serve peace with it. But if someone’s emotions are imbalanced, even if he has the best equipment,
AI WEIWEIDuring the days in detention, I thought most about the moon.
More Ai Weiwei Quotes
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I was an illegal alien for many, many years. I couldn’t move. If I moved I could not even get a visa back.
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Of course, people will call you an old artist or young artist, which is just a character of you.
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For me, it is OK as long as I can breathe, as long as my heart is pumping, as long as I can express myself.
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How to become a really modern society when today we are so – as a human being, we feel so powerful. We have high technology and a superb way of controlling our life. And at the same time, in many ways we are so primitive.
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I always want people to be confused, to be shocked or realize something later.
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A society is healthy only when it allows its members to discuss their thoughts openly. This is also the only way that a society can gather consensus, let everyone express his or her wish, and foster creativity.
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For artists and intellectuals today, what is most needed is to be clear about social responsibility, because that is what most people automatically give up. Just to protect yourself as an individual is very political.
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I’m totally independent. I don’t bear any responsibility to any system.
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You have so many museums in the West, and so many shows, you need somebody to show the work, otherwise it’s empty.
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I call on people to be ‘obsessed citizens,’ forever questioning and asking for accountability. That’s the only chance we have today of a healthy and happy life.
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I don’t think my father had a direct influence on me, but I do think, more or less, I was influenced by his independent individualism.
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Without freedom of speech, there is no modern world, just a barbaric one.
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They see how dramatic U.S. has to be put this kind of shame on its own – cannot handle the situation. Or show such a difficulty with this liberal ideas. Men or women created equal. And to defend those very essential ideas.
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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.
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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.
AI WEIWEI