Ai Weiwei Quotes - Page 6

Life is art. Art is life. I never separate it. I don’t feel that much anger. I equally have a lot of joy.

Freedom of expression is a very essential condition for me to make any art. Also, it is an essential value for my life. I have to protect this right and also to fight for the possibility.

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

I don't belong to a working system. They only select people if you belong to one so you can be controlled.

I'm totally independent. I don't bear any responsibility to any system.

I also 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 OK, to speak out.

What is important is that we actively express our thoughts and wishes, in every realm that we can access.

This so-called fame or being better off doesn't really attract me at all.

I think China is laughing about the results of the presidential elections. China, Russia, they all laugh about it. They see how dramatic U.S. has to be put this kind of shame on its own - cannot handle the situation. Or show such a difficulty with this liberal ideas. Men or women created equal. And to defend those very essential ideas.

The practice of photography is no longer a means for recording reality. Instead, it has become reality itself

I don't think there is a distinct change, because in the West I'm not a person who can serve his purpose.

I was an illegal alien for many, many years. I couldn't move. If I moved I could not even get a visa back.

Of course, most luxury goods in China are for corrupted officials and their relatives. And that made China become the biggest luxury-goods market. In this kind of dictatorship, in this kind of totalitarian society, it is easy to make deals that you cannot make in a democratic society.

In my life, I often make so-called major decisions by very quick, immediate responses.

Man has a tendency to try to give clear reasons to be rational, but often you can see how all those reasons are not convincing and turn out to be a big nonsense.

The importance of elections, transparency, legal procedures, an independent army, and the judicial system is not regarded as highly in China. These core values are the most important evidence of the health of a society, quality of life, and security. A clear understanding of such differences will help the rest of the world understand China and all that is happening to the nation.

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

[Cultural department] understand nothing but bureaucratic daily affairs. They don't care about culture.

Otherwise, I think the building can be bigger, larger, and the city can be much more crazy. The problem is the government structure is so deadly stupid, not really solving problems but creating a lot of problems itself every day.

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

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.

This is a very general understanding of art in China, that being an artist can make you money and turn you into a star.

If I look at it, I would laugh. I don't know how I became successful.

China hasn't only existed for one day. Now, the whole nation has become richer and it's become a problem. The problem is universal. The factor is big. Everybody has to rethink the balance of the world and the whole landscape.

To the media, I have become a symbolic figure, critical of China. According to the government, I am a dangerous threat.