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After I came back [to China], there was still a long period of time when I felt I had nothing to do.

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
Came
Felt
Stills
Still
Back
Nothing
Period
Long
China
Time
Periods

More quotes by Ai Weiwei

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I think by not letting young people be fully informed, how can they have energy and passion and the right picture of the world? I think that's the true crime.
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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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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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I will never leave China, unless I am forced to. Because China is mine. I will not leave something that belongs to me in the hands of people I do not trust.
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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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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.
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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 don't like China. Even today, I still feel I have no emotional relations with this place.
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For me, it is OK as long as I can breathe, as long as my heart is pumping, as long as I can express myself.
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I don't personally feel any association with a kind of culture related to state, or culture related to power, which I think is always disgusting.
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[Being unique] gives so much privilege to people who can make it, rather than having some moral and aesthetic discussions.
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We should use this public sphere and redefine - beyond China's borders - what a government is allowed to do, where its powers end and where the realm of a citizen's privacy begins.
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As a person, I was born to give out my opinions. By giving out my opinions, I realize who I am. As long as I can communicate, I'm not so lonely. If I cannot travel, or do art, or have company, if they take away all my belongings, it doesn't matter at all.
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New York has given me a lot, but I still don't consider it home.
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I loved New York — every inch of it. It was a little bit scary at that time, but still, the excitement was so strong — visually and intellectually. It was like a monster.
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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 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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People have a tendency to become elite rather than to care about the general conditions of the society, which makes me sick. It's an unbearable condition.
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The relationship between the Chinese government and me is like a Cold War.
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During the days in detention, I thought most about the moon.
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