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. - Ai Weiwei

My messages are temporary and shouldn’t be our permanent condition. And like the wind it will pass. We’ll have another wind coming.

On the Internet, people do not know each other, they don’t have common leaders, sometimes not even a common political goal. But they come together on certain issues. I think that is a miracle. It never happened in the past. Without the Internet, I would not even be Ai Weiwei today. I would just be an artist somewhere doing my shows.

My work has always been political, because the choice of being an artist is political in China.