Ai Weiwei quotes - page 8

Tax crimes should be investigated by the tax bureau, not through secret police detention. (Ai Weiwei)
I think restrictions are an essential condition in the fight for freedom of expression. It's also a source for any kind of creativity. View quote
Ai Weiwei
The officials want China to be seen as a cultured, creative nation, but in this anti-liberal political society everything outside the direct control of the state is seen as a potential threat. View quote
Ai Weiwei
Cover-ups and deception are the nature of this society. Without lies it won't exist. View quote
Ai Weiwei
A fine line separates Chinese intellectuals and professors from the political gangsters who protect them. View quote
Ai Weiwei
I think we have too much history. It's not so important. I think people should have fun and enjoy their own time. I haven't done much, so why should I waste people's memory? View quote
Ai Weiwei
We see plenty of artistic work that reflects superficial social conditions, but very little work that questions fundamental values. View quote
Ai Weiwei
Every day I think, this will be the day I get taken in again.... View quote
Ai Weiwei
Why are you so concerned about society?' That is always the question. And my answer is simple: 'Because you are an artist, you have to associate yourself with freedom of expression. View quote
Ai Weiwei
As an artist, I am very familiar with how to show the details, how to transform them into a language people can understand. They [the government] know that the Internet is a strong force, unbearable for them. View quote
Ai Weiwei
There is no revolution like the Communist revolution. You simply burn all the books, kill all of the thinking people and use the poor proletariat to create a very simple benchmark to gauge social change. (Ai Weiwei)
The Sichuan disaster is not the first nor the most wrongful. But all the details of this tragedy will be forgotten, and once again it will be like nothing ever happened. Eventually all these disasters will together create a bizarre miracle called civilization and evolution. View quote
Ai Weiwei
In a society where there is no freedom of the press, it is difficult for victims to be noticed. Just take the example from yesterday: I had given a telephone interview to CNN. Then, suddenly, CNN was shut down for a couple of minutes. It was the first time I experienced that my television went totally dead. I realized: Oh my God, it's because of me. This is crazy! Which nation would do that? Maybe Cuba, North Korea, China. But what do they want, what are they so afraid of? View quote
Ai Weiwei
The biggest crime of a dictatorship is to eradicate human feelings from people. View quote
Ai Weiwei
The Olympics are an opportunity to redefine the country, but the message is always wrong. View quote
Ai Weiwei
This is a decadent era. Its main characteristic is that it's dependent on lies and cheating. Once it loses this characteristic, it can't survive for even a day. View quote
Ai Weiwei
People often say I started to become too outspoken after a certain period. It's all because of the Internet. If we didn't have this technology I would be same as everybody else. I couldn't really amplify my voice. View quote
Ai Weiwei
The frustration mainly comes from trying to understand what they really want. Also, you cannot understand how can such a large nation maintain its so-called stability by doing something very unlawful. I mean, how can they possibly manage to stabilize the whole social condition by not [acting with] justice and fairness. View quote
Ai Weiwei
When the mayor of Nagoya denies the Nanjing Massacre, he gets blacklisted by the city of Nanjing. When the government of Sichuan denies "tofu dregs” construction [which caused the collapse of several schools], they get blacklisted by me. View quote
Ai Weiwei
I think right now is the moment. This is the beginning. We don't know what is it the moment of, and maybe something much crazier will happen. But really, we see the sunshine coming in. It was clouded for maybe a hundred years. Our whole condition was very sad, but we still feel warmth, and the life in our bodies can still tell that there is excitement in there, even though death is waiting. We had better not enjoy the moment, but create the moment. View quote
Ai Weiwei
This does not mean a meteor has fallen. This is the discovery of a star. (Ai Weiwei)
Before blogging, I was living in the Middle Ages. Now my feelings for time and space are entirely different. View quote
Ai Weiwei
I often think what I'm saying is for the people who never had a chance to be heard. View quote
Ai Weiwei
I think I have this responsibility to my father's generation, and especially future generations. View quote
Ai Weiwei
I don't really care that much about if I want to be more successful or less successful in art, because I never think life and art should be separate. What's life if you don't have conversation and joy and anger? View quote
Ai Weiwei