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When human beings are scared and feel everything is exposed to the government, we will censor ourselves from free thinking. That's dangerous for human development.

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
Humans
Scared
Feel
Beings
Feels
Development
Thinking
Dangerous
Free
Government
Human
Censor
Everything
Exposed

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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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If my art has nothing to do with people's pain and sorrow, what is 'art' for?
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I think optimism is whether you are still exhilarated by life, whether you are curious, whether you still believe there is possibility.
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There's no single artwork I even want to mention or that I can even really think about it to have any feeling, to be proud of it.
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Through my work and ways of expression, I strive to engage in dialogue with the society that I am living in.
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I think by shattering it we can create a new form, a new way to look at what is valuable — how we decide what is valuable.
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Life is art. Art is life. I never separate it. I don’t feel that much anger. I equally have a lot of joy.
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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 think U.S. and China is a big opportunity, to be seen as partner or some kind of strategic partner maybe. But those kind of powers have a way of getting too big, then we'll have competition. And who is going to win the competition if U.S. cannot hold a strong ideology? And even the U.S. would've lost the ground to win.
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Twitter is the people’s tool, the tool of the ordinary people, people who have no other resources.
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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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Artists are the worst [people]. They are selfish, self-centred they don't care what happens.
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You only have temporary curiosity, amusement, and challenges, but that does not necessarily mean you are really convinced that it's necessary or that it's not even worth to do it. It's just a way you have to set up some kind of activities to follow your instincts or your curiosities.
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If a society cannot even support somebody like me, then people ask: Who is under protection then? That's why there is such support for me. It is not because I am so beautiful or I am so charming. People feel: This guy is fighting for us.
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The [China] government has improved in the last years. Of course, the structure is still the same there's still a one-party system and strong censorship.
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In a society like this there is no negotiation, no discussion, except to tell you that power can crush you any time they want — not only you, your whole family and all people like you.
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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.
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Expressing oneself is like a drug. I'm so addicted to it.
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Art should live in the heart of the people. Ordinary people should have the same ability to understand art as anybody else. I don't think art is elite or mysterious.
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I suddenly realized I was getting ten opening notes a day on my mobile phone, more than when I was in New York. But this is China, where nothing is surprising.
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