Quote

I think optimism is whether you are still exhilarated by life, whether you are curious, whether you still believe there is possibility.

Ai Weiwei

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

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
Whether
Stills
Still
Believe
Think
Exhilarated
Thinking
Optimism
Life
Curious
Possibility

More quotes by Ai Weiwei

Image
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.
Ai Weiwei
Image
To call yourself a Chinese artist or woman artist or African artist reflects a certain kind of condition. To me, that is not necessary.
Ai Weiwei
Image
If Shakespeare were alive today, he might be writing on Twitter.
Ai Weiwei
Image
So-called Chinese art and culture is under control of the Party. They exist to serve the official agenda. I call it fake art and culture.
Ai Weiwei
Image
As a human being, member of society, you must clearly state your mind. It's a responsibility. It is the way you identify yourself otherwise you don't know who you are and why you are here.
Ai Weiwei
Image
Creativity is the power to act.
Ai Weiwei
Image
I curated this show [Shanghai Biennale ], I was by no means trying to shock people or be controversial.
Ai Weiwei
Image
I want people to see their own power.
Ai Weiwei
Image
China and the U.S. are two societies with very different attitudes towards opinion and criticism. In China, I am constantly under surveillance. Even my slightest, most innocuous move can - and often is - censored by Chinese authorities.
Ai Weiwei
Image
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.
Ai Weiwei
Image
[Museums] all belongs to the cultural department, which is the biggest cultural department in the world.
Ai Weiwei
Image
Art needs to stand for something.
Ai Weiwei
Image
I don't think China has professional museums - not in the past, present, or near future.
Ai Weiwei
Image
Of course, there [in China] has to be chaos. It has to be crazy, and I don't think there's anything wrong about it except this government, which is really incapable of doing anything meaningful.
Ai Weiwei
Image
Our lives are bound by physical limits, familial ties, political conditions, and geographical restrictions. Individual freedom takes us beyond them all.
Ai Weiwei
Image
This so-called contemporary art is not a form, but a philosophy of society.
Ai Weiwei
Image
To experience poetry is to see over and above reality. It is to discover that which is beyond the physical, to experience another life and another level of feeling. It is to wonder about the world, to understand the nature of people and, most importantly, to be shared with another, old or young, known or unknown.
Ai Weiwei
Image
Dictatorship is a story about death of others who turn out to be you coincidently.
Ai Weiwei
Image
[Cultural department] understand nothing but bureaucratic daily affairs. They don't care about culture.
Ai Weiwei
Image
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