Ai Weiwei Quotes - Page 13

To survive, China had to open up to the West. It could not survive otherwise. This was after many millions have died of hunger in a country that was like North Korea is today. Once we became part of global competition, we had to agree to some rules. It's painful, but we had to. Otherwise there was no way to survive.

Art needs to stand for something.

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

I always thought that in modern history Chinese people are like a dish of sand, never really close together. But I think a dish of sand is a good metaphor because we have the Internet. We don't have to be physically united. You can be an individual and have your own set of values but join others in certain struggles. There is nothing more powerful than that.

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.

I'm most embarrassed at my art shows, even though I don't show it.

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

The idea to use backpacks came from my visit to Sichuan after the earthquake in May 2008. During the earthquake many schools collapsed. Thousands of young students lost their lives, and you could see bags and study material everywhere. Then you realize individual life, media, and the lives of the students are serving very different purposes. The lives of the students disappeared within the state propaganda, and very soon everybody will forget everything.

China partially wants to become part of the world. By hosting the Olympics and the Expo, they made a big effort to tell people: Look, we are the same. They want to be accepted by the international community.

No matter what happens, nothing can prevent the historical process by which society demands freedom and democracy.

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

Cities really are mental conditions. Beijing is a nightmare. A constant nightmare.

The people who control culture in China have no culture.

Art is always about overcoming obstacles between the inner condition and the skill for expression.

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

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.

Many people I know - writers, poets - they have all been sentenced not once but sometimes three times after they come out. They serve five or six years, come out another time, and then nine years. Come out again, 12 years. Only because they have a different opinion. They are innocent people, they have beautiful minds, beautiful hearts.

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.

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.

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.