Ai Weiwei - Human Quotes

14 Sourced Quotes

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The biggest crime of a dictatorship is to eradicate human feelings from people.

Ai Weiwei
My current situation is, I always want to find a new possibility. China is in a changing stage, and that puts me in a very difficult situation, because anytime a new condition is announced there is a lot of struggle between the new and the old. So the establishment really becomes extremely nervous because they are refusing to meet very basic human rights or values. I don't know how long I can still struggle in China, but I will try my best. Because this is a land I am very familiar with, and we have been in the same kind of struggle for generations. I think it's a time for change.

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

Ai Weiwei
[My family] suffer so much. My mother was much older when I came out [of detention]. She had problems with her hearing and high blood pressure. But they still support me. When you make somebody disappear and you don't announce it to the family, what is this? You make people desperate and bring them close to death. If our cat or dog is lost, it makes us desperately want to know where it is—so for humans disappearing, you can barely imagine the pain. What kind of society is this? 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 so charming. People feel, This guy is fighting for us.

Ai Weiwei
Living in a system under the Communist ideology, an artist cannot avoid fighting for freedom of expression. You always have to be aware that art is not only a self-expression but a demonstration of human rights and dignity. To express yourself freely, a right as personal as it is, has always been difficult, given the political situation.

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
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
I think China is in a chaos now and it could be more chaos. It's an orderly chaos. It's a party that ruthlessly violates every human's basic rights to serve its own purpose.

Ai Weiwei
Stupidity can win for a moment, but it can never really succeed because the nature of humans is to seek freedom. Rulers can delay that freedom, but they cannot stop it.

Ai Weiwei
If there is no freedom of expression, then the beauty of life is lost. Participation in a society is not an artistic choice, it's a human need.

Ai Weiwei
It is better to have a retarded president who respects human values than a clever government without human values.

Ai Weiwei
Three years after the CCTV headquarters fire [in Beijing in February 2009], human skeletons lie forgotten. Is anyone accountable?

Ai Weiwei
Today, the West feels very shy about human rights and the political situation. They're in need of money. But every penny they borrowed or made from China has really come as a result of how this nation sacrificed everybody's rights. With globalization and the Internet, we all know it. Don't pretend you don't know it. The Western politicians—shame on them if they say they're not responsible for this. It's getting worse, and it will keep getting worse.

Ai Weiwei