Ai Weiwei Quotes

213 Sourced Quotes

Very few people know why art sells so high. I don't even know.

Ai Weiwei
Your own acts tell the world who you are and what kind of society you think it should be.

Ai Weiwei
The art always wins. Anything can happen to me, but the art will stay.

Ai Weiwei
It's really life and death [not art]. When they tell you your mother is 80 years old but you cannot see her again, you can never call it performance art. Or when your son is three, and they tell you that when you are released he will be in his teens and can never recognize you as a father. You feel terrible inside, to lose those chances. Each day, they tell you, 'You will spend your life day after day the same, minute after minute the same. You just have to pay [with] your life for this kind of so-called freedom that you are fighting for.' There is no sense of justice there. Why do I have to do this with them? Why do I have to argue or play this game?

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

Ai Weiwei
I think my stance and my way of life is my most important art.

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

Ai Weiwei
The most unfair things that could have happened in a society fell upon a blind man. This is something that no one can accept or explain away with any excuse. Everyone will ask: 'Do we actually have to exist in a society like this?'

Ai Weiwei
The tragic reality of today is reflected in the true plight of our spiritual existence. We are spineless and cannot stand straight.

Ai Weiwei
[The Olympics are] an event manipulated into misleading people into believing that we have entered a new, successful and harmonious period in our history. This is not true.

Ai Weiwei
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.

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

Ai Weiwei
Do they want me to stay? Do they want me to leave? Do they want me to hang myself? To kill myself? What do they want?

Ai Weiwei
The individual under this kind of life, with no rights, has absolutely no power in this land. How can they even ask you for creativity? Or imagination, or courage or passion?

Ai Weiwei
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
Contemporary art and the [Communist] Party are an impossible situation. It's like oil and water—they can never mix.

Ai Weiwei
Myself, I try to search for the new way, always trying to set up a new possibility and to find the new tools to express myself. To reach a broader audience.

Ai Weiwei
The government may be made up of clever, sensible people. But if they do not believe in basic human values, the more clever or shrewd they are the greater the tragedy they will create.

Ai Weiwei
Creativity is part of human nature. It can only be untaught.

Ai Weiwei
Beijing is two cities. One is of power and of money. People don't care who their neighbors are; they don't trust you. The other city is one of desperation. I see people on public buses, and I see their eyes, and I see they hold no hope. They can't even imagine that they'll be able to buy a house. They come from very poor villages where they've never seen electricity or toilet paper.

Ai Weiwei
House arrest, travel restrictions, surveillance, stopping phone service, cutting the Internet connection. What we can still do is greet the crazy motherland once again.

Ai Weiwei
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.

Ai Weiwei
I have the responsibility to let the people know what happened to me, and did I commit the crime or if I didn't, what is the real accusation? Why am I in this condition today? I think it reflects our human condition in this piece of land, and if I don't bear some responsibility.... many, many people, their voice can never be heard.

Ai Weiwei
The 2008 Olympics has created an illusion of China to the public and to the outside world. It is so fantastic, so unreal, that the entire meaning of the games is being distorted.

Ai Weiwei
I think I have this responsibility to my father's generation, and especially future generations.

Ai Weiwei
The disaster-makers always get away, while the innocent are always punished.

Ai Weiwei
When I checked into a hospital [in Germany, after having been beaten by police in Sichuan], I was told there was bleeding in my brain and I was near fatal collapse. I was rushed into surgery. When I awoke I felt like a normal person again. But I will not feel whole until I and my fellow Chinese can live freely.

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.

Ai Weiwei
Anyone who cares about truth should avoid not politics, but Olympic lies.

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

Ai Weiwei