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My angst and my insecurity reflect the state's angst and insecurity. The state is scared too.

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
Reflect
Scared
State
States
Angst
Insecurity

More quotes by Ai Weiwei

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If civil society has nobody who protects the law, then what kind of society is that?
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China seems unpredictable because it has a distinct culture and social system. It is still a mystery to other parts of the world, even though the veil of China has been lifted many times as a result of globalization.
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Twitter is the people’s tool, the tool of the ordinary people, people who have no other resources.
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If there is no freedom of expression, then the beauty of life is lost. Participation in a society is not an artistic choice, it’s a human need.
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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 never really read Allen Ginsberg poetry, even though I have a book he gave me.
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Choices after waking up: To be true or to lie? To take action or be brainwashed? To be free or be jailed?
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To experience poetry is to see over and above reality. It is to discover that which is beyond the physical, to experience another life and another level of feeling. It is to wonder about the world, to understand the nature of people and, most importantly, to be shared with another, old or young, known or unknown.
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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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The motivation is really to say people can find the game of getting involved interesting and find the problem and really have the passion and the enthusiasm to solve it and move forward, but that's all I know.
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Anyone fighting for freedom does not want to totally lose their freedom.
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Liberty is about our rights to question everything.
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If human rights are supposed to have any meaning, then they have to be discussed openly.
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Even if there have been setbacks during these past years, China is changing. China's society is opening.
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This week, the world gathers in Beijing for the 2008 Olympic games. This is the extraordinary moment China has been dreaming of for 100 years. People have been longing for this moment, because it symbolises a turning point in China's relationship with the outside world.
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To survive, China had to open up to the West. It could not survive otherwise. This was after many millions have died of hunger in a country that was like North Korea is today. Once we became part of global competition, we had to agree to some rules. It's painful, but we had to. Otherwise there was no way to survive.
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Your own acts tell the world who you are and what kind of society you think it should be.
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In a society that restricts individual freedoms and violates human rights, anything that calls itself creative or independent is a pretence. It is impossible for a totalitarian society to create anything with passion and imagination.
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Today, the general masses in this society are in this political-social condition that really encourages people to become rich and become a star and be unique.
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I'm most embarrassed at my art shows, even though I don't show it.
Ai Weiwei