black
grey
blue
red
brown
white

…photographs are facts, but not necessarily true… The present always surpasses the past, and the future will not care about today.

Ai Weiwei

My typical day is I wake up and appreciate that I can still wake up.
AI WEIWEI

Appreciate Typical Wake Up
You don’t have to march on Tiananmen, but you do have to be clear-minded, to find your own means of expression.
AI WEIWEI

Clear Expression March Mean Minded Own Tiananmen
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 WEIWEI

Emotion Emotional Man More Old Physical Poetry Problem Together
A nation that has no music and no fairytales is a tragedy.
AI WEIWEI

Fairytale Music Nation Tragedy
Somehow, we [ Tan Dun and director Chen Kaige] were all privileged at the time; we could be outside of China. But at the moment, we had no sense of what the future was going to be like.
AI WEIWEI

Country Director Future Going Moment Outside Priilied Somehow Time
We literally lived underground. We dug a hole and lived there for years. My father cleaned public toilets, even though he was a highly respected poet.
AI WEIWEI

Cleaned Highly Hole Literally Lived Poet Respected Toilet Underground Yera
Nowadays, China is experiencing the detrimental effects of such decisions. Its citizens have no creativity.
AI WEIWEI

Citizen Country Creativity Decision Detrimental Effect Experiencing
Life is art. Art is life. I never separate it.
AI WEIWEI

Art Life never Separate
I am very much interested in the so-called useless object. I mean, it takes perfect craftsmanship, beautiful material carefully measured and crafted, but at the same time it’s really useless.
AI WEIWEI

Beautiful Called Craftsmanship Interested Material Mean Perfect Useless
I curated this show [Shanghai Biennale ], I was by no means trying to shock people or be controversial.
AI WEIWEI

Controversial Curated Mean People Shock Trying
We are living in a popular culture where everything is overexposed.
AI WEIWEI

Culture Everything Overexposed Popular Living
I don’t want the next generation to fight the same fight as I did.
AI WEIWEI

Fight Fighting Generation Same Want
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
Of course, there [in China] has to be chaos. It has to be crazy, and I don’t think there’s anything wrong about it except this government, which is really incapable of doing anything meaningful.
AI WEIWEI

Anything Country Crazy Meaningful Think Thinking Wrong
You’re still being looked at as somebody who – it’s a very complicated issue.
AI WEIWEI

Complicated Issue Looked Somebody Still
The rest of the world understands little about China’s changes and the possibilities and crises that come with them.
AI WEIWEI

Country Crises Little Possibility Rest Understand World

…photographs are facts, but not necessarily true… The present always surpasses the past, and the future will not care about today.

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…photographs are facts, but not necessarily true… The present always surpasses the past, and the future will not care about today.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

More Ai Weiwei Quotes