Ai Weiwei Quotes

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.

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

Democracy, material wealth, and universal education are the soil upon which modernism exists.

I hope that my work expresses my worldview and encourages people to exchange ideas.

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

Life is art. Art is life. I never separate it.

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

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

Hopefully, other successes aren't like me. It carries much more meaning to other people; my success story is irrelevant. It doesn't make any sense.

I will never leave China, unless I am forced to. Because China is mine. I will not leave something that belongs to me in the hands of people I do not trust.

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

My typical day is I wake up and appreciate that I can still wake up.

It became like a symbolic thing, to be “an artist.” After Duchamp, I realized that being an artist is more about a lifestyle and attitude than producing some product.

You need a purpose to express yourself, but that expression is its own purpose.

I think you can give meaning to any condition; you can be poor or unsuccessful or be so-called successful. But I don't think that it would give an individual human being a better condition.

As a total activity - I practice curating, art, architecture, writing, and publishing all together. I still act as a living creature.

It's really rubbish that some kind of "technical" learning means you will be a better person because you know this skill better.

Through my work and ways of expression, I strive to engage in dialogue with the society that I am living in.

Behind every political deal in this country, the first casualties are always the ordinary people, who are barely treated as human.

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 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.

The rest of the world understands little about China's changes and the possibilities and crises that come with them.

My definition of art has always been the same. It is about freedom of expression, a new way of communication. It is never about exhibiting in museums or about hanging it on the wall.

I came back [to Beijing ] because that's the only time I had an excuse to come back, or otherwise I would never have a reason to come back.

Any design, any city, any kind of craziness or tragedy, it all comes from a long time of preparation.

I have always stated I designed the stadium as a toilet seat. I don't care if this is a great cultural event or a national symbol. It has nothing to do with me. It deals with the city.

Because Chinese art is booming, it legitimizes this profession.

We live in changing times, and many people experience the challenges that come with it. In the face of uncertain futures, no one will know what to expect.

Anyone fighting for freedom does not want to totally lose their freedom.

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.

Life is much more interesting when you make a little bit of effort.

Today, the general masses in this society are in this political-social condition that really encourages people to become rich and become a star and be unique.

If a nation cannot face its past, it has no future.

I don’t want the next generation to fight the same fight as I did.

The freedom of speech is an important yardstick for a society's level of civilization.

If you don’t act, the danger becomes stronger.

Chinese government is very clearly losing power in every aspect, but trying to fix up all the problems or potential problems.

Of course, there [in China] has to be chaos. It has to be crazy, and I don't think there's anything wrong about it except this government, which is really incapable of doing anything meaningful.

Somehow, we [ Tan Dun and director Chen Kaige] were all privileged at the time; we could be outside of China. But at the moment, we had no sense of what the future was going to be like.

The whole attitude of society has become much more open and realistic. They realize that the only way to make a more democratic and free society is to let different opinions come out.

I never had a sense of home.

I don't believe in a sense of home.

I never really read Allen Ginsberg poetry, even though I have a book he gave me.

I spend a lot of time talking to journalists.

It [success] is really by mistake.

New York has given me a lot, but I still don't consider it home.

That's why I always question this sense. The feeling of home really requires a lot of trust. It requires you to identify with it, which I always find myself very contradictory to.