Quote

I'm a free man now, except I cannot leave China. You know, I have no desire to travel. I have so many things to do I cannot finish them now.

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
Cannot
Many
Finish
Things
China
Men
Travel
Except
Leave
Free
Desire

More quotes by Ai Weiwei

Image
Today, the general masses in this society are in this political-social condition that really encourages people to become rich and become a star and be unique.
Ai Weiwei
Image
I am very much interested in the so-called useless object. I mean, it takes perfect craftsmanship, beautiful material carefully measured and crafted, but at the same time it’s really useless.
Ai Weiwei
Image
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.
Ai Weiwei
Image
Society becomes very destructive.
Ai Weiwei
Image
If there's the right condition, I always want to express the concept or ideas in a very independent way.
Ai Weiwei
Image
I have people working together, doing different things: architecture, art installation, photography, publishing, and curatorial works and design.
Ai Weiwei
Image
I was an illegal alien for many, many years. I couldn't move. If I moved I could not even get a visa back.
Ai Weiwei
Image
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.
Ai Weiwei
Image
...photographs are facts, but not necessarily true... The present always surpasses the past, and the future will not care about today.
Ai Weiwei
Image
Even though everybody who looked at me would call me a Chinese artist, that's the 1980s. New York in the '80s was not so interesting. I think it's quite narrow-minded. There wasn't much encouragement or opportunities for any artist - not just Chinese artists.
Ai Weiwei
Image
The Internet changes the structure of society all the time — this massiveness made of individuals.
Ai Weiwei
Image
We grew up in a very material-lacking socialist society, but today China is a capitalist society. It's very materialistic. It's full of desire and luxury goods.
Ai Weiwei
Image
In an environment without public platform nor protection, the individual is the most powerful and most responsible.
Ai Weiwei
Image
The United States is a melting pot. Like John F. Kennedy said, it's a nation of immigrants. But Donald Trump wants to build a fence that clearly makes the statement: You and I are divided. We're different, and you're dangerous. That kind of thinking stops human, civilized evolution. It's dangerous to create that kind of tension.
Ai Weiwei
Image
Overturning police cars is a super-intense workout. It’s probably the only sport I enjoy.
Ai Weiwei
Image
I'm not nostalgic about the old city. I don't enjoy it that much. It was just a city with one emperor and the rest of them just rats or meaningless people.
Ai Weiwei
Image
I think we cannot have a double standard. We cannot see our art as different from the reality. We cannot use two different sets of judgment.
Ai Weiwei
Image
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.
Ai Weiwei
Image
As a person, I was born to give out my opinions. By giving out my opinions, I realize who I am. As long as I can communicate, I'm not so lonely. If I cannot travel, or do art, or have company, if they take away all my belongings, it doesn't matter at all.
Ai Weiwei
Image
I don't belong to a working system. They only select people if you belong to one so you can be controlled.
Ai Weiwei