Democracy, material wealth, and universal education are the soil upon which modernism exists.
AI WEIWEIThe whole Chinese system – not just the political leadership, the military too, the whole power structure, our education system, the whole of society – is suffering from being cut off from the free flow of information.
More Ai Weiwei Quotes
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I spend a lot of time talking to journalists.
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My typical day is I wake up and appreciate that I can still wake up.
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If artists cannot speak up for human dignity or rights, then who else will do it?
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The United States is a melting pot. Like John F. Kennedy said, it’s a nation of immigrants. But Donald Trump wants to build a fence that clearly makes the statement: “You and I are divided.
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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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Any politician who respects China’s government should tell it openly what is in his heart. It is disrespectful to keep quiet about such issues – both vis-a-vis the government and the people concerned.
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It [success] is really by mistake.
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So, the politicians and the people who make decisions very often is the one we think can make some difference. But of course they will not make a difference if the citizens or the individuals not push it or not to speak out, to possess a very strong voice about, this is not acceptable.
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Many people are going to use [Beijing National Stadium], which makes it more meaningful. If we don’t design it, somebody else has to design it.
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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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We are living in a popular culture where everything is overexposed.
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I hope that my work expresses my worldview and encourages people to exchange ideas.
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The Internet has established a public sphere and developed a pressure which the government can no longer ignore.
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I 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.
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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.
AI WEIWEI