Ai Weiwei - People Quotes

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The 81 days of detention were a nightmare. I am not unique; it happened to many people in China. Conditions were extreme, created by a system that thinks it is above the law and has become a kind of monstrous machine. There were so many moments when I felt desperate and hopeless. But still, the next morning, I heard the birds singing.

Ai Weiwei
To protect the right of expression is the central part of an artist's activity..... In China many essential rights are lacking, and I wanted to remind people of this.

Ai Weiwei
I definitely know people who are shameless enough to give up basic values. I see this kind of art, and when I see it I feel ashamed. In China they treat art as some form of decoration, a self-indulgence. It is pretending to be art. It looks like art. It sells like art. But it is really a piece of shit.

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
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
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
[People] always tell me, Weiwei, leave the nation, please. Or Live longer and watch them die. Either leave, or be patient and watch how they die. I really don't know what I'm going to do.

Ai Weiwei
My voice is not for me. Every time I make a sentence I think how many people for how many generations had a voice that no one could hear. At most they will be remembered as numbers; in many cases, even numbers don't exist.

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

Ai Weiwei
They just don't trust people. They don't trust individuals, they don't trust any change that should serve and benefit people, and they try to stop it.

Ai Weiwei
No autocracy can lead people to believe that they are living in harmony and happiness.

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
Nothing can silence me as long as I am alive. I don't give any kind of excuse. If I cannot come out [of China] or I cannot go in [to China] this is not going to change my belief. But when I am there, I am in this condition: I see it, I see people who need help. Then you know, I just want to offer my possibility to help them.

Ai Weiwei
I try to encourage people to look at our past in a critical way because as our education, we have a great, great history. But in reality we are poorest in ethics and philosophy, so I try to raise people's consciousness on how we deal with our past.

Ai Weiwei
In a society like this there is no negotiation, no discussion, except to tell you that power can crush you any time they want—not only you, your whole family and all people like you.

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

Ai Weiwei
There were thousands of moving messages. People sent money from their first month's salary. Others said: This is my retirement payment—take it. This is the money for my next pair of shoes—take it. It was very important for me to see and hear those things. Normally you do not see the warmth, humor, care and generosity of the people while writing a blog. You just feel like you are walking in a dark tunnel and you feel alone.

Ai Weiwei
Today China and the world will meet again. People will see that the planet is now smaller than at any time in history, that mankind should bid farewell to arrogance and indifference, to ignorance and discrimination, and understand that we share the same small piece of land. It will be a time to rediscover each other, to share what is good in life, to look each other in the eye and link all ten fingers.

Ai Weiwei
You're in total isolation. And you don't know how long you're going to be there, but you truly believe they can do anything to you. There's no way to even question it. You're not protected by anything. Why am I here? Your mind is very uncertain of time. You become like mad. It's very hard for anyone. Even for people who have strong beliefs.

Ai Weiwei
We need clear rules to play the game. We need to have respect for the law. If you play a chess game but after two or three moves you can change the rules, how can people play with you? Of course you will win, but after 60 years you will still be a bad player because you never meet anyone who can challenge you. What kind of game is that? Is that interesting? This game is not right, but who is going to say, 'Hey, let's play fairly?'

Ai Weiwei
People often say I started to become too outspoken after a certain period. It's all because of the Internet. If we didn't have this technology I would be same as everybody else. I couldn't really amplify my voice.

Ai Weiwei
There is no revolution like the Communist revolution. You simply burn all the books, kill all of the thinking people and use the poor proletariat to create a very simple benchmark to gauge social change.

Ai Weiwei
The people who control culture in China have no culture.

Ai Weiwei
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. Art should live in the heart of the people. Ordinary people should have the same ability to understand art as anybody else. I don't think art is elite or mysterious. I don't think anybody can separate art from politics. The intention to separate art from politics is itself a very political intention.

Ai Weiwei
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 okay, to speak out.

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
Twitter is the people's tool, the tool of the ordinary people, people who have no other resources.

Ai Weiwei
During my detention, they kept asking me: Ai Weiwei, what is the reason you have become like this today? My answer is: First, I refuse to forget. My parents, my family, their whole generation and my generation all paid a great deal in the struggle for freedom of speech. Many people died just because of one sentence or even one word. Somebody has to take responsibility for that.

Ai Weiwei
On the Internet, people do not know each other, they don't have common leaders, sometimes not even a common political goal. But they come together on certain issues. I think that is a miracle. It never happened in the past. Without the Internet, I would not even be Ai Weiwei today. I would just be an artist somewhere doing my shows.

Ai Weiwei