Quote

For me, it is OK as long as I can breathe, as long as my heart is pumping, as long as I can express myself.

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
Pumping
Breathe
Express
Heart
Long

More quotes by Ai Weiwei

Image
China restricts the society's freedom of speech. The Communist Party imposes these limits because it lacks confidence towards the future and has no ideals. Nowadays, China is experiencing the detrimental effects of such decisions. Its citizens have no creativity.
Ai Weiwei
Image
Just look at the statistics: Each university has tens of thousands of applications for students who want to be in art school, but they can only accept a few hundred.
Ai Weiwei
Image
All the rich people collect traditional Chinese art. So it's very natural for Chinese families to still see art as the highest human performance and send their children to this field.
Ai Weiwei
Image
A nation like China has become one of the biggest production fields for exporting cheap labor, which also re-questions our history and past, re-questions human desire, and the human illusions of the past.
Ai Weiwei
Image
Beijing is constructing a 100,000 m2 modern art museum, yet it will not feature any of my work.
Ai Weiwei
Image
No state or society can claim to have established human rights once and for all.
Ai Weiwei
Image
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.
Ai Weiwei
Image
Selling high or low doesn't mean anything. It has to do purely with the market.
Ai Weiwei
Image
It's always the rich and there's plenty to waste, yet still China has a lot of people living in very spare, poor conditions.
Ai Weiwei
Image
All movies in China are censored. Out of 600 movies produced in China, only 60 are allowed to show in theatres.
Ai Weiwei
Image
I don't think my father had a direct influence on me, but I do think, more or less, I was influenced by his independent individualism. And the kind of condition he had when he was in this society - the kind of mistreatment society gave him.
Ai Weiwei
Image
I think Allen [Ginsberg] was a person who's like a child.
Ai Weiwei
Image
[Cultural departments] don't care about culture. Maybe they're the furthest from the people who understand culture.
Ai Weiwei
Image
Dont retreat. Retweet!
Ai Weiwei
Image
The demand for individual freedom leads us to different realms, and it enables us to participate in social events.
Ai Weiwei
Image
This week, the world gathers in Beijing for the 2008 Olympic games. This is the extraordinary moment China has been dreaming of for 100 years. People have been longing for this moment, because it symbolises a turning point in China's relationship with the outside world.
Ai Weiwei
Image
China has a rich history that has spanned millennia. It consists of the histories of many nations and regions.
Ai Weiwei
Image
Creativity is the power to reject the past, to change the status quo, and to seek new potential. Simply put, aside from using one's imagination - perhaps more importantly - creativity is the power to act.
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
My understanding of Chinese history is limited. So far, I have only scratched its surface I wish I could find out more.
Ai Weiwei