Quote

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.

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
Mind
Three
Serve
Years
Another
Hearts
Time
Beautiful
Writers
People
Come
Minds
Sentenced
Many
Poet
Poets
Sometimes
Opinion
Innocent
Different
Five
Six
Heart
Times
Nine

More quotes by 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
I hope that my work expresses my worldview and encourages people to exchange ideas.
Ai Weiwei
Image
Measuring national prestige by gold medals is like using Viagra to judge the potency of a man.
Ai Weiwei
Image
The Internet has established a public sphere and developed a pressure which the government can no longer ignore.
Ai Weiwei
Image
The whole Chinese system - not just the political leadership, the military too, the whole power structure, our education system, the whole of society - is suffering from being cut off from the free flow of information. That's why the country can't face up to open competition - unless it resorts to measures like North Korea.
Ai Weiwei
Image
To express yourself needs a reason, but expressing yourself is the reason.
Ai Weiwei
Image
If Shakespeare were alive today, he might be writing on Twitter.
Ai Weiwei
Image
If I look at it, I would laugh. I don't know how I became successful.
Ai Weiwei
Image
My childhood was quite extreme. Sometimes I was so weak I could not stand up. But now I am so strong. Life is unpredictable
Ai Weiwei
Image
Life is never guaranteed to be safe, so we better use it while we are still in good condition.
Ai Weiwei
Image
I call on people to be 'obsessed citizens,' forever questioning and asking for accountability. That's the only chance we have today of a healthy and happy life.
Ai Weiwei
Image
My image of what a city should be - the super-rich and all the poor and desperate and the people who have some kind of a desire. It's a surviving game, people trying to survive on many different levels.
Ai Weiwei
Image
The practice of photography is no longer a means for recording reality. Instead, it has become reality itself
Ai Weiwei
Image
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.
Ai Weiwei
Image
If there is no free speech, every single life has lived in vain
Ai Weiwei
Image
To work in architecture you are so much involved with society, with politics, with bureaucrats. It's a very complicated process to do large projects. You start to see the society, how it functions, how it works. Then you have a lot of criticism about how it works.
Ai Weiwei
Image
Any politician who respects China's government should tell it openly what is in his heart. It is disrespectful to keep quiet about such issues - both vis-a-vis the government and the people concerned.
Ai Weiwei
Image
Creativity is the power to act.
Ai Weiwei
Image
I remember one little rainy day I went searching for this apartment and I saw so many people standing on a stoop on the corner in the rain. Later I realized, that was drug traffic. They were all buying drugs.
Ai Weiwei
Image
I never had secure, belonging feelings with this society [in China].
Ai Weiwei