Quote

In the '80s, you couldn't walk in the neighborhood without looking back to see if anyone was following you. You had your key in your hand before you got to your apartment and you'd rush in so you didn't have to stop.

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
Looking
Neighborhood
Anyone
Following
Didn
Keys
Hands
Couldn
Back
Walk
Without
Walks
Stop
Rush
Hand
Apartment

More quotes by Ai Weiwei

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The world is sphere, has no East or West.
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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.
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I see the Beijing National Stadium as an architectural project. I accepted Herzog and De Meuron's invitation to collaborate on the design, and our proposal won the competition. From beginning to end, I stayed with the project. I am committed to fostering relationships between a city and its architecture.
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The whole attitude of society has become much more open and realistic. They realize that the only way to make a more democratic and free society is to let different opinions come out.
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We are living in a popular culture where everything is overexposed.
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What counts in the end is what the government does.
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Of course, people will call you an old artist or young artist, which is just a character of you. But personally, I don't think my work and my understanding of art is so much related to being Chinese, but the character of that. Maybe it's beyond my own consciousness.
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Many people I know - writers, poets - they have all been sentenced not once but sometimes three times after they come out. They serve five or six years, come out another time, and then nine years. Come out again, 12 years. Only because they have a different opinion. They are innocent people, they have beautiful minds, beautiful hearts.
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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.
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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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This is a very general understanding of art in China, that being an artist can make you money and turn you into a star.
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Had I to create a name for these times, I’d say it is the age of craziness
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I don't like China. Even today, I still feel I have no emotional relations with this place.
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I wouldn’t say I’ve become more radical: I was born radical.
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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.
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I was an illegal alien for many, many years. I couldn't move. If I moved I could not even get a visa back.
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Everyone wants an iPhone, but it would be impossible to design an iPhone in China because it's not a product it's an understanding of human nature.
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When you have strict censorship of the internet, young students cannot receive a full education. Their view of the world is imbalanced. There can be no true discussion of the issues.
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Of course, most luxury goods in China are for corrupted officials and their relatives. And that made China become the biggest luxury-goods market. In this kind of dictatorship, in this kind of totalitarian society, it is easy to make deals that you cannot make in a democratic society.
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I hope that my work expresses my worldview and encourages people to exchange ideas.
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