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The misconception of totalitarianism is that freedom can be imprisoned. This is not the case. When you constrain freedom, freedom will take flight and land on a windowsill.

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
Imprisoned
Misconception
Flight
Case
Cases
Land
Windowsill
Freedom
Constrain
Take
Totalitarianism

More quotes by Ai Weiwei

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I never saw [Allen Ginsberg] as some kind of crazy figure.
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If you don’t act, the danger becomes stronger.
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The rest of the world understands little about China's changes and the possibilities and crises that come with them.
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I have to respect my life, and free expression is part of my life. I can never really silence myself.
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The motivation is really to say people can find the game of getting involved interesting and find the problem and really have the passion and the enthusiasm to solve it and move forward, but that's all I know.
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[Cultural department] understand nothing but bureaucratic daily affairs. They don't care about culture.
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At the moment about 350,000 students return to China from abroad each year - 350,000 young and educated people. I know about them because they know me and often ask me in the street if they can take a selfie with me. These folks are creative and ironic, and the government can ultimately not control what is going on in their heads.
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We have to give our opinion, we have to say something, or we are a part of it. As an artist I am forced to say something.
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Behind every political deal in this country, the first casualties are always the ordinary people, who are barely treated as human.
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I don't belong to a working system. They only select people if you belong to one so you can be controlled.
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If we all say the same thing, then I think the government has to listen. But because no one is saying it, I become singled out, even though what I'm saying is common sense. It's very essential values that we all have to protect. But in Chinese society, people are giving up on protecting these values.
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