black
grey
blue
red
brown
white

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.

Ai Weiwei

I never had a sense of home.
AI WEIWEI

Home Sense
In the end, I think, the state’s rigidity is a function of its own insecurity, its indecisiveness.
AI WEIWEI

End Function Indecisiveness Insecurity Rigidly Thinking
…photographs are facts, but not necessarily true… The present always surpasses the past, and the future will not care about today.
AI WEIWEI

Always Care Past Photograph Present Surpasses Today True
The misconception of totalitarianism is that freedom can be imprisoned. This is not the case. When you constrain freedom, freedom will take flight and land on a windowsill.
AI WEIWEI

Case Constrain Flight Freedom Imprisoned Land Misconception
I always want to design a frame that’s open to everyone. I don’t see art as a secret code.
AI WEIWEI

Art Code Design Everyone Open Secret
I believe [the architecture firm] Herzog and de Meuron and our collaboration made the product the best it could be.
AI WEIWEI

Architecture Believe Best Collaboration Made Product
Through my work and ways of expression, I strive to engage in dialogue with the society that I am living in.
AI WEIWEI

Engage Expression Living Society Strive Way
[Shanghai Biennale] has been my attitude for as long as I’ve been practicing art and other cultural-related activities.
AI WEIWEI

Art Attitude Culture Long Practicing Related
People who can’t do that don’t get a sense of responsibility. And if you lack a sense of responsibility, you push the blame onto the system.
AI WEIWEI

Blame People Responsibility Sense System
A lot of the time [in the U.S.], I was thinking about how spending time is always questionable or is always the biggest obstacle in my life.
AI WEIWEI

Always Obstacles Question Spending Thinking Time
Censorship is saying: “I’m the one who says the last sentence. Whatever you say, the conclusion is mine.” But the internet is like a tree that is growing.
AI WEIWEI

Conclusion Mine People Quiet Saying Sentence Tree Voice
It’s not really an ideology, but a method of control. But China’s problems are not just China’s problems – they’re human problems. Humanity has always worked better when you see it as one.
AI WEIWEI

Always Control Ideology Country Human One Problem Worked
Even though everybody who looked at me would call me a Chinese artist, that’s the 1980s. New York in the ’80s was not so interesting.
AI WEIWEI

Artist Encouragement New York
To experience poetry is to see over and above reality. It is to discover that which is beyond the physical, to experience another life and another level of feeling.
AI WEIWEI

Above Beyond Experience Feeling Over People Physical Poetry Reality
So for too long Americans take liberty as granted. We think we are in the safe hand, the democracy and the liberty, which is not true. And it can be even getting much worse than today.
AI WEIWEI

Country Democracy Granted Liberty Think Today True Worse
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. Art should live in the heart of the people.
AI WEIWEI

Always Art Been Communication Definition Expression Freedom Same Wall

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.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

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.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

More Ai Weiwei Quotes