Ai Weiwei Quotes

I think restrictions are an essential condition in the fight for freedom of expression. It’s also a source for any kind of creativity.

We should leave behind discrimination, because it is narrow-minded and ignorant, denies contact and warmth, and corrodes mankind’s belief that we can better ourselves. The only way to avoid misunderstanding, war, and bloodshed is to defend freedom of expression and to communicate with sincerity, concern, and good intentions.

If a nation cannot face its past, it has no future.

During the days in detention, I thought most about the moon.

I’m an artist who is always looking for what is possible. I’m always looking to extend the boundaries.

Tax crimes should be investigated by the tax bureau, not through secret police detention.

The state is taking action against people who have peacefully demonstrated their ideas. They are writers—all they did is to express their minds through the Internet. So the pattern is very clear. The state tries to maintain stability by crushing any thought of making change. It could happen to me, because I did the same thing and in many cases I went much further and deeper. But I always think the government can learn from their mistakes—they should learn and understand; they should be just as intelligent as anyone else.

Very few people know why art sells so high. I don’t even know.

The government may be made up of clever, sensible people. But if they do not believe in basic human values, the more clever or shrewd they are the greater the tragedy they will create.

In talking about memory and our history, I think our humanity, especially in China, is cut. Cut, broken, separated. If we have a character from our history and memory, the character is broken, it’s shattered.

My voice is not for me. Every time I make a sentence I think how many people for how many generations had a voice that no one could hear. At most they will be remembered as numbers; in many cases, even numbers don’t exist.

Anyone fighting for freedom does not want to totally lose their freedom.

The Internet changes the structure of society all the time—this massiveness made of individuals.

Contemporary art and the [Communist] Party are an impossible situation. It’s like oil and water—they can never mix.

I have to respect my life, and free expression is part of my life. I can never really silence myself.