Ai Weiwei Quotes

At the moment about 350,000 students return to China from abroad each year – 350,000 young and educated people. I know about them because they know me and often ask me in the street if they can take a selfie with me.

The Internet has established a public sphere and developed a pressure which the government can no longer ignore.

I am everywhere and I am nowhere. That’s the beauty of the Internet Age.

The whole attitude of society has become much more open and realistic. They realize that the only way to make a more democratic and free society is to let different opinions come out.

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.

The art always wins. Anything can happen to me, but the art will stay.

If it’s possible, I will have some noodles in the morning and start talking to people, start to think about a few things in my head.

I believe [the architecture firm] Herzog and de Meuron and our collaboration made the product the best it could be.

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.

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.