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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

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Ai Weiwei
Age: 67
Born: 1957
Born: May 18
Architect
Consultant
Contemporary Artist
Designer
Film Director
Human Rights Activist
Painter
Photographer
Sculptor
Social Activist
Peking
Wei-wei Ai
Weiwei Ai
Ai Wei Wei
Life
Asking
People
Citizens
Healthy
Forever
Call
Chance
Accountability
Happy
Questioning
Today
Obsessed

More quotes by Ai Weiwei

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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.
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We should use this public sphere and redefine - beyond China's borders - what a government is allowed to do, where its powers end and where the realm of a citizen's privacy begins.
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No state or society can claim to have established human rights once and for all.
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I never saw [Allen Ginsberg] as some kind of crazy figure.
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All the auction houses care about is the selling of luxury goods.
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The freedom of speech is an important yardstick for a society's level of civilization.
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I never regret anything.
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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.
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As a total activity - I practice curating, art, architecture, writing, and publishing all together. I still act as a living creature.
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The media is the message. It carries the full intention and the meaning. Once you change it...it's very disturbing.
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This so-called fame or being better off doesn't really attract me at all.
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If you just turn to your paper or television each day, there are thousands of stories that are much more shocking than the gallery artworks.
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I want people to see their own power.
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If a master, a wise and experienced man, wields a great weapon, that's beautiful. He can serve peace with it. But if someone's emotions are imbalanced, even if he has the best equipment, he will still mean danger. Modern technology requires calm. You shouldn't trust anyone with a car who has no knowledge about vehicles or roads.
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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.
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The so-called culture nowadays is only a fake one with a superficial front. It is an empty lie.
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I think the pearls - one is a necklace, and another you have five hundred pounds of pearls, which may be one million pearls in a bowl - really show a kind of [society] condition.
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[Being unique] gives so much privilege to people who can make it, rather than having some moral and aesthetic discussions.
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The museums used to be exhibition halls for government propaganda, and now every city wants to build a museum. A few thousand are to be built in the next few years, all using taxpayer money. But there is no system, no research, no content, no good programs, no good managers.
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China spends a lot of resources and effort on gaining soft power over culture. The hope is that it can be the last lifeline for the Party's survival. Obviously, the idea will fail.
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