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The American experience influenced my understanding of individuality, basic human rights, freedom of expression and the rights and responsibilities of citizens.

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
American
Influenced
Freedom
Individuality
Experience
Basic
Human
Citizens
Humans
Expression
Responsibility
Rights
Understanding
Responsibilities

More quotes by Ai Weiwei

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My childhood was quite extreme. Sometimes I was so weak I could not stand up. But now I am so strong. Life is unpredictable
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I'm not a writer, but today I think you have to be everything. As an artist you have an obligation to let people know what is on your mind and why you're doing this.
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I think everybody deserves freedom. Freedom is such an abstract word, but it's all we need.
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New York was not a romantic city at [80th]. Nobody knows who you are and you don't have to care about anybody else. It's a very cold city, I should say.
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Say what you say plainly, and then take responsibility for it.
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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.
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I always admire writers. My father was a writer, a poet. I always admire people who can clearly state their mind.
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The Internet is uncontrollable. And if the Internet is uncontrollable, freedom will win. It's as simple as that.
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If a nation cannot face its past, it has no future.
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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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Society becomes very destructive.
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For artists and intellectuals today, what is most needed is to be clear about social responsibility, because that is what most people automatically give up. Just to protect yourself as an individual is very political. You don't have to march on Tiananmen, but you do have to be clear-minded, to find your own means of expression.
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I never regret anything.
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Only with the Internet can a peasant I have never met hear my voice and I can learn what's on his mind. A fairy tale has come true.
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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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China seems unpredictable because it has a distinct culture and social system. It is still a mystery to other parts of the world, even though the veil of China has been lifted many times as a result of globalization.
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By participating in the society we live in, we understand our conditions and the way we relate to the world.
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The world is sphere, has no East or West.
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Chinese citizens have never had the right to really express their opinions in the constitution it says you can, but in the real world it is more dangerous. In the west people think it's a right they're born with. Here it's a right given by the government, and one that's not really practised.
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I hope that my work expresses my worldview and encourages people to exchange ideas.
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