Weiwei's Quotes

#1. 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

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

Ai Weiwei

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

Ai Weiwei

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

Ai Weiwei

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

Ai Weiwei

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

Ai Weiwei

#7. 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

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

Ai Weiwei

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

Ai Weiwei

#10. 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

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

Ai Weiwei

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

Ai Weiwei

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

Ai Weiwei

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

Ai Weiwei

#15. 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

#16. 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

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

Ai Weiwei

#18. 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

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

Ai Weiwei

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

Ai Weiwei

#21. 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

#22. 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

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

Ai Weiwei

#24. 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

#25. 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

#26. 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

#27. Every day I'm learning something new from the practice. It's very rewarding.

Ai Weiwei

#28. Chinese citizens have never had the right to really express their opinions; in the constitution it says you can, but in the real world it is more dangerous. In the west people think it's a right they're born with. Here it's a right given by the government, and one that's not really practised.

Ai Weiwei

#29. Beijing's Olympics were very grand - they were trying to throw a party for the world, but the hosts didn't enjoy it. The government didn't care about people's feelings because it was trying to create an image.

Ai Weiwei

#30. To protect the right of expression is the central part of an artist's activity ... In China many essential rights are lacking, and I wanted to remind people of this.

Ai Weiwei

#31. The Internet is uncontrollable. And if the Internet is uncontrollable, freedom will win. It's as simple as that.

Ai Weiwei

#32. People are always wondering if I am an artist or political activist or politician. Maybe I'll just clearly tell you: Whatever I do is not art. Let's say it is just objects or materials, movies or writing, but not art, OK?

Ai Weiwei

#33. I think it's more important to show your work to the public.

Ai Weiwei

#34. Twitter is the people's tool, the tool of the ordinary people, people who have no other resources.

Ai Weiwei

#35. This week, the world gathers in Beijing for the 2008 Olympic games. This is the extraordinary moment China has been dreaming of for 100 years. People have been longing for this moment, because it symbolises a turning point in China's relationship with the outside world.

Ai Weiwei

#36. If my art has nothing to do with people's pain and sorrow, what is 'art' for?

Ai Weiwei

#37. It's always nice to share your energy with young people, the people who might not have any skills but are simply willing to be a part of it.

Ai Weiwei

#38. If a society cannot even support somebody like me, then people ask: Who is under protection then? That's why there is such support for me. It is not because I am so beautiful or I am so charming. People feel: This guy is fighting for us.

Ai Weiwei

#39. I think of art as coming from daily life, daily experience. I think it's very important not to have it become work for some kind of elite circle.

Ai Weiwei

#40. 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

#41. I think it's a responsibility for any artist to protect freedom of expression and to use any way to extend this power.

Ai Weiwei

#42. I don't think it's worth discussing new directions in the context of Chinese art - there were no old directions, either. Chinese art has never had any clear orientation.

Ai Weiwei

#43. You see so many people doing quite nice and respectful work, but nobody like Warhol. Warhol is outstanding. I think he has a value that is far from fully understood. He's very special for younger generations.

Ai Weiwei

#44. My mother became much older when I came out (ed's note: of detention). She had problems with her hearing and high blood pressure. But they still support me.

Ai Weiwei

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

Ai Weiwei

#46. 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

#47. 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

#48. 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

#49. 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

#50. 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

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

Ai Weiwei

#52. 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

#53. 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

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

Ai Weiwei

#55. 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

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

Ai Weiwei

#57. 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

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

Ai Weiwei

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

Ai Weiwei

#60. 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

#61. 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

#62. 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

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

Ai Weiwei

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

Ai Weiwei

#65. 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

#66. 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

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

Ai Weiwei

#68. 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

#69. 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

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

Ai Weiwei

#71. 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

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

Ai Weiwei

#73. 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

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

Ai Weiwei

#75. 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

#76. 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

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

Ai Weiwei

#78. 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

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

Ai Weiwei

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

Ai Weiwei

#81. 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

#82. 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

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

Ai Weiwei

#84. 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

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

Ai Weiwei

#86. 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

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

Ai Weiwei

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

Ai Weiwei

#89. 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

#90. 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

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

Ai Weiwei

#92. 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

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

Ai Weiwei

#94. 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

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

Ai Weiwei

#96. 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

#97. 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

#98. 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

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

Ai Weiwei

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

Ai Weiwei