Weiwei Quotes

#1. There's a reason the Chinese government is very concerned about Ai Weiwei. It's because he has all of these ingredients in his life that allow him to attract enormous attention across a very broad spectrum of the population.

Evan Osnos

#2. On some level, there's a limit to what the government really worries about when it comes to a guy like Ai Weiwei, who's talking to a limited audience of people. He's talking to people who more or less already agree with him.

Evan Osnos

#3. Ai Weiwei, who is both a widely admired conceptual artist and a fearless human-rights activist, has been on the bad side of the Chinese government for years.

Terry Teachout

#4. I admire Ai Weiwei for his art and his activism. His art is beautiful in form, and in function embodies the principles of populism and social consciousness I aspire to in my own practice.

Shepard Fairey

#5. I looked at but was not allowed to touch Ai Weiwei's 'Sunflower Seeds' at the Tate. The film of making them was really moving.

Kate Fleetwood

#6. The conceptual artist Ai WeiWei illustrates the schizoid society that rapid change has produced - sometimes by reassembling Ming-style furniture into absurd and useless arrangements, or by carefully painting and antiquing a Coca-Cola logo on an ancient Chinese pot.

Arne Glimcher

#7. I don't believe in the so-called Olympic spirit. I speak from personal experience. When China hosted the Games, it failed to include the people. The event was constructed without regard for their joy.

Ai Weiwei

#8. I remember one little rainy day I went searching for this apartment and I saw so many people standing on a stoop on the corner in the rain. Later I realized, that was drug traffic. They were all buying drugs.

Ai Weiwei

#9. The Internet changes the structure of society all the time - this massiveness made of individuals.

Ai Weiwei

#10. I think art is a very important weapon to achieve human freedom

Ai Weiwei

#11. My image of what a city should be - the super-rich and all the poor and desperate and the people who have some kind of a desire. It's a surviving game, people trying to survive on many different levels.

Ai Weiwei

#12. In an environment without public platform nor protection, the individual is the most powerful and most responsible.

Ai Weiwei

#13. I loved New York - every inch of it. It was a little bit scary at that time, but still, the excitement was so strong - visually and intellectually. It was like a monster.

Ai Weiwei

#14. Now the British are coming. I think Cameron should ask the Chinese government not to make people 'disappear' or to jail them merely because they have different opinions.

Ai Weiwei

#15. I wouldn't say I've become more radical: I was born radical.

Ai Weiwei

#16. The Olympic Games are highly commercialised. They purport to follow the traditions of an ancient athletics competition, but today it is the commercial aspect that is most apparent. I have seen how, through sport, cities and corporations compete against each other for financial gain.

Ai Weiwei

#17. Recently I danced in a video spoof of the song 'Gangnam Style,' and it was quickly banned across multiple Chinese online video platforms. But the story still traveled all over the world, carried in hundreds of international media reports.

Ai Weiwei

#18. I always want to design a frame that's open to everyone. I don't see art as a secret code.

Ai Weiwei

#19. Liberty is about our rights to question everything.

Ai Weiwei

#20. When human beings are scared and feel everything is exposed to the government, we will censor ourselves from free thinking. That's dangerous for human development.

Ai Weiwei

#21. 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 people will always have the last word - even if someone has a very weak, quiet voice. Such power will collapse because of a whisper.

Ai Weiwei

#22. I'm not a writer, but today I think you have to be everything. As an artist you have an obligation to let people know what is on your mind and why you're doing this.

Ai Weiwei

#23. I think everybody deserves freedom. Freedom is such an abstract word, but it's all we need.

Ai Weiwei

#24. The seed is a household object but at the same time it is a revolutionary symbol.

Ai Weiwei

#25. My childhood was quite extreme. Sometimes I was so weak I could not stand up. But now I am so strong. Life is unpredictable

Ai Weiwei

#26. The world is not changing if you don't shoulder the burden of responsibility.

Ai Weiwei

#27. We see the tendency in the world to criticise democracy and sometimes even to say that authoritarian countries like China are more efficient. That is very short-sighted. China looks efficient only because it can sacrifice most people's rights. This is not something the west should be happy about.

Ai Weiwei

#28. Twitter is most suitable for me. In the Chinese language, 140 characters is a novella,

Ai Weiwei

#29. You can never know what is and what is not powerful, but you can always find out what the powerful people are scared of. A state like China looks so powerful, but they are so scared of the Internet, so the Internet is more powerful than them.

Ai Weiwei

#30. I think by shattering it we can create a new form, a new way to look at what is valuable - how we decide what is valuable.

Ai Weiwei

#31. Choices after waking up: To be true or to lie? To take action or be brainwashed? To be free or be jailed?

Ai Weiwei

#32. The purpose of art is the fight for freedom,

Ai Weiwei

#33. As a human being, member of society, you must clearly state your mind. It's a responsibility. It is the way you identify yourself otherwise you don't know who you are and why you are here.

Ai Weiwei

#34. If there is no freedom of expression, then the beauty of life is lost. Participation in a society is not an artistic choice, it's a human need.

Ai Weiwei

#35. New York is a city where you're so alone, you're an individual, you can disappear. You can make something happen. But it's very different to make something happen in the art world.

Ai Weiwei

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

Ai Weiwei

#37. 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.

Ai Weiwei

#38. A small act is worth a million thoughts.

Ai Weiwei

#39. The world is a sphere, there is no East or West.

Ai Weiwei

#40. Creativity is the power to reject the past, to change the status quo, and to seek new potential. Simply put, aside from using one's imagination - perhaps more importantly - creativity is the power to act.

Ai Weiwei

#41. Liberty is about the right to question everything.

Ai Weiwei

#42. Dictatorship is a story about death of others who turn out to be you coincidently.

Ai Weiwei

#43. Because Great Britain has self-confidence, it doesn't need a monumental Olympics.

Ai Weiwei

#44. Creativity is part of human nature. It can only be untaught.

Ai Weiwei

#45. I think Chinese leadership is trying to tell the world they have another set of logic or reasoning or values which are different from yours. Of course, I don't think they believe that. It's just an argument that's made when you can't confront the truth and facts. They really want to maintain power.

Ai Weiwei

#46. I want people to see their own power.

Ai Weiwei

#47. An artwork unable to make people feel uncomfortable or to feel different is not one worth creating. This is the difference between the artist and the fool.

Ai Weiwei

#48. Stupidity can win for a moment, but it can never really succeed because the nature of humans is to seek freedom. Rulers can delay that freedom, but they cannot stop it.

Ai Weiwei

#49. I always want people to be confused, to be shocked or realize something later.

Ai Weiwei

#50. A city is a place that can offer maximum freedom. Otherwise it's incomplete.

Ai Weiwei

#51. These are nonviolent people who have lost their freedom simply because they expressed their ideas ... In truth, they are heroes of our time.

Ai Weiwei

#52. Historically, China is not a nation of sportsmen. We traditionally put more emphasis on being close to nature than pushing endlessly to excel. A philosophy that values tranquil contemplation of the landscape cannot easily be adapted to the Olympic slogan of 'higher, stronger, faster.'

Ai Weiwei

#53. Individual; that means he has his own special way to communicate, which creates the form of him. In the information age, this expression and communication has become so different.

Ai Weiwei

#54. 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

#55. Only with the Internet can a peasant I have never met hear my voice and I can learn what's on his mind. A fairy tale has come true.

Ai Weiwei

#56. A historical property has morals and ethics of the society that created it and it can be revived. What I mean is that we can discover new possibilities from the process of dismantling, transforming, and recreating.

Ai Weiwei

#57. Self-censorship is insulting to the self. Timidity is a hopeless way forward.

Ai Weiwei

#58. I have to speak out for people around me who are afraid, who think it is not worth it or who have totally given up hope. So I want to set an example: you can do it and this is okay, to speak out.

Ai Weiwei

#59. Since the global economic crisis began, the change in global attitudes is clear to see - and I think it is pitiful. Barack Obama came to China and he is probably the only president of the United States never to mention the words 'human rights' in public.

Ai Weiwei

#60. If Shakespeare were alive today, he might be writing on Twitter.

Ai Weiwei

#61. I don't want the next generation to fight the same fight as I did.

Ai Weiwei

#62. China and the U.S. are two societies with very different attitudes towards opinion and criticism. In China, I am constantly under surveillance. Even my slightest, most innocuous move can - and often is - censored by Chinese authorities.

Ai Weiwei

#63. The media is the message. It carries the full intention and the meaning. Once you change it ... it's very disturbing.

Ai Weiwei

#64. In the '80s, you couldn't walk in the neighborhood without looking back to see if anyone was following you. You had your key in your hand before you got to your apartment and you'd rush in so you didn't have to stop.

Ai Weiwei

#65. Because of the economic crisis, China and the United States are bound together. This is a totally new phenomenon, and nobody will fight for ideology anymore. It's all about business.

Ai Weiwei

#66. If you don't act, the danger becomes stronger.

Ai Weiwei

#67. To express yourself needs a reason, but expressing yourself is the reason.

Ai Weiwei

#68. Expressing oneself is like a drug. I'm so addicted to it.

Ai Weiwei

#69. Had I to create a name for these times, I'd say it is the age of craziness

Ai Weiwei

#70. The IT people who have made such an effort to know and understand computer technology. They are frustrated that you cannot use Facebook, Twitter and YouTube in China. They are the first to recognize that the situation is terrible.

Ai Weiwei

#71. Overturning police cars is a super-intense workout. It's probably the only sport I enjoy.

Ai Weiwei

#72. I'm an artist who is always looking for what is possible. I'm always looking to extend the boundaries.

Ai Weiwei

#73. My situation gives me certain ideas about beauty or the excitement of life, but that doesn't mean other people can necessarily appreciate it.

Ai Weiwei

#74. We are living in a very complex society. It puts me in a complex frame of thinking.

Ai Weiwei

#75. I have to find a place for my own. I have to search for my own happiness.

Ai Weiwei

#76. I always admire writers. My father was a writer, a poet. I always admire people who can clearly state their mind.

Ai Weiwei

#77. We move so fast that memory is something we can only grasp

Ai Weiwei

#78. Life is never guaranteed to be safe, so we better use it while we are still in good condition.

Ai Weiwei

#79. Measuring national prestige by gold medals is like using Viagra to judge the potency of a man.

Ai Weiwei

#80. Artists are the worst [people]. They are selfish, self-centred; they don't care what happens.

Ai Weiwei

#81. During the days in detention, I thought most about the moon.

Ai Weiwei

#82. All the auction houses care about is the selling of luxury goods.

Ai Weiwei

#83. The 'Bird's Nest' National Stadium, which I helped to conceive, is designed to embody the Olympic spirit of 'fair competition.' It tells people that freedom is possible but needs fairness, courage and strength.

Ai Weiwei

#84. Everyone wants an iPhone, but it would be impossible to design an iPhone in China because it's not a product; it's an understanding of human nature.

Ai Weiwei

#85. Freedom of speech implies the world isn't defined. It is meaningful when people are allowed to see the world their way.

Ai Weiwei

#86. There are no outdoor sports as graceful as throwing stones at a dictatorship.

Ai Weiwei

#87. If civil society has nobody who protects the law, then what kind of society is that?

Ai Weiwei

#88. Mass production is nothing new. Weren't cathedrals built through mass production? The pyramids? ... Paintings can be painted with the left hand, the right hand, someone else's hand, or many people's hands. The scale of production is irrelevant to its content.

Ai Weiwei

#89. Everything is art. Everything is politics.

Ai Weiwei

#90. If there is no free speech, every single life has lived in vain

Ai Weiwei

#91. Art needs to stand for something.

Ai Weiwei

#92. It doesn't matter where I am - China will stay in me. I don't know how far I can still walk on this road and what is the limit.

Ai Weiwei

#93. We have to give our opinion, we have to say something, or we are a part of it. As an artist I am forced to say something.

Ai Weiwei

#94. I'm a free man now, except I cannot leave China. You know, I have no desire to travel. I have so many things to do; I cannot finish them now.

Ai Weiwei

#95. I'm always interested in people who are not orientated in art circles to become part of it.

Ai Weiwei

#96. I think by not letting young people be fully informed, how can they have energy and passion and the right picture of the world? I think that's the true crime.

Ai Weiwei

#97. To work in architecture you are so much involved with society, with politics, with bureaucrats. It's a very complicated process to do large projects. You start to see the society, how it functions, how it works. Then you have a lot of criticism about how it works.

Ai Weiwei

#98. I am everywhere and I am nowhere. That's the beauty of the Internet Age.

Ai Weiwei

#99. This nation is notorious for its ability to make or fake anything cheaply. 'Made-in-China' goods now fill homes around the world. But our giant country has a small problem. We can't manufacture the happiness of our people.

Ai Weiwei

#100. Warhol influenced me because of his writing. If I had never read his writings and interviews, I would never have understood his work.

Ai Weiwei