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I also have to speak out for people around me who are afraid, who think it is not worth it or who have totally given up hope. So I want to set an example: you can do it and this is OK, to speak out.

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
Also
Okay
Think
Afraid
Thinking
Worth
People
Example
Hope
Speak
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More quotes by Ai Weiwei

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I curated this show [Shanghai Biennale ], I was by no means trying to shock people or be controversial.
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It's really rubbish that some kind of technical learning means you will be a better person because you know this skill better.
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Many people are going to use [Beijing National Stadium], which makes it more meaningful. If we don't design it, somebody else has to design it.
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We move so fast that memory is something we can only grasp
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Mass production is nothing new. Weren't cathedrals built through mass production? The pyramids?... Paintings can be painted with the left hand, the right hand, someone else's hand, or many people's hands. The scale of production is irrelevant to its content.
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Our lives are bound by physical limits, familial ties, political conditions, and geographical restrictions. Individual freedom takes us beyond them all.
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The people who control culture in China have no culture.
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Warhol came from an ordinary family and he had a profound understanding about capitalism and material culture. He was probably one of the few Western artists - or artists from the United States - that could be considered a true product of his time and brought out that kind of spirit of the culture.
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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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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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My angst and my insecurity reflect the state's angst and insecurity. The state is scared too.
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Liberty is about our rights to question everything.
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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.
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The misconception of totalitarianism is that freedom can be imprisoned. This is not the case. When you constrain freedom, freedom will take flight and land on a windowsill.
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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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...photographs are facts, but not necessarily true... The present always surpasses the past, and the future will not care about today.
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Life is much more interesting when you make a little bit of effort.
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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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No state or society can claim to have established human rights once and for all.
Ai Weiwei
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Art needs to stand for something.
Ai Weiwei