Ai Weiwei Mean Quotations

I am very much interested in the so-called useless object. I mean, it takes perfect craftsmanship, beautiful material carefully measured and crafted, but at the same time it’s really useless.

For artists and intellectuals today, what is most needed is to be clear about social responsibility, because that is what most people automatically give up. Just to protect yourself as an individual is very political. You don't have to march on Tiananmen, but you do have to be clear-minded, to find your own means of expression.

Maybe being powerful means to be fragile.

My situation gives me certain ideas about beauty or the excitement of life, but that doesn't mean other people can necessarily appreciate it.

Individual; that means he has his own special way to communicate, which creates the form of him. In the information age, this expression and communication has become so different.

Freedom of speech implies the world isn’t defined. It is meaningful when people are allowed to see the world their way.

A historical property has morals and ethics of the society that created it and it can be revived. What I mean is that we can discover new possibilities from the process of dismantling, transforming, and recreating.

Widespread state control over art and culture has left no room for freedom of expression in the country. For more than 60 years, anyone with a dissenting opinion has been suppressed. Chinese art is merely a product: it avoids any meaningful engagement. There is no larger context. Its only purpose is to charm viewers with its ambiguity.

The practice of photography is no longer a means for recording reality. Instead, it has become reality itself