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.
AI WEIWEIDestroy or build. Crazy or noncrazy. I’m not nostalgic about the old city. I don’t enjoy it that much.
More Ai Weiwei Quotes
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The deadly weapon against totalitarian society is openness – doing everything very openly on the Internet, letting people know every detail, any little development. Once it is out there, everybody can make their own judgement.
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The 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.
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I don’t think there is a distinct change, because in the West I’m not a person who can serve his purpose.
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I think the government regrets having Sina Weibo, but they cannot shut it down. That would definitely be suicidal.
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I have to respect my life, and free expression is part of my life. I can never really silence myself.
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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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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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I lived there [ in New York City] as an artist, but never as a Chinese artist.
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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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It’s just a way you have to set up some kind of activities to follow your instincts or your curiosities.
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Even today the borders they’re seeing the physical borders are very different from the political borders. Because all those powers are so connected, and you cannot even see whose interest in what move.
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Without freedom of speech, there is no modern world, just a barbaric one.
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Being an artist is more of a mindset, a way of seeing things; it is no longer so much about producing something.
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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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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