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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.

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
York
Phone
Getting
Phones
Nothing
Opening
Suddenly
Realized
Notes
Ten
Mobile
China
Surprising

More quotes by Ai Weiwei

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My situation gives me certain ideas about beauty or the excitement of life, but that doesn't mean other people can necessarily appreciate it.
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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.
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A city is a place that can offer maximum freedom. Otherwise it’s incomplete.
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Warhol influenced me because of his writing. If I had never read his writings and interviews, I would never have understood his work.
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The art always wins. Anything can happen to me, but the art will stay.
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As a total activity - I practice curating, art, architecture, writing, and publishing all together. I still act as a living creature.
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Society becomes very destructive.
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I think everybody deserves freedom. Freedom is such an abstract word, but it's all we need.
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I think you can give meaning to any condition you can be poor or unsuccessful or be so-called successful. But I don't think that it would give an individual human being a better condition.
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Everything is selected by the central government without good judgment or an understanding of culture to make it really safe. They will become nobody to maintain their power and be raised to the next higher level.
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Say what you say plainly, and then take responsibility for it.
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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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Recently I danced in a video spoof of the song 'Gangnam Style,' and it was quickly banned across multiple Chinese online video platforms. But the story still traveled all over the world, carried in hundreds of international media reports.
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Otherwise, I think the building can be bigger, larger, and the city can be much more crazy. The problem is the government structure is so deadly stupid, not really solving problems but creating a lot of problems itself every day.
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I think it’s a responsibility for any artist to protect freedom of expression and to use any way to extend this power.
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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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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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The Internet has established a public sphere and developed a pressure which the government can no longer ignore.
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I hope that my work expresses my worldview and encourages people to exchange ideas.
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I can still wake up the next day and feel that there's something that needs to be done, which always amuses me.
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