Ai Weiwei

"I am always trying to find how to get the message through. we custom-made five thousand backpacks like the ones of those students to construct a simple sentence mother of a dead student. It was: 'She …"

"The 2008 Olympics has created an illusion of China to the public and to the outside world. It is so fantastic, so unreal, that the entire meaning of the games is being distorted."

"To what degree does it help us to change our life, or even to sense our existence, to really evaluate “why?” I think those questions cannot be escaped. Sometimes in history it’s more hidden; somewhere…"

"I came to art because I wanted to escape the other regulations of the society. The whole society is so political. But the irony is that my art becomes more and more political."

"I cannot ever accept the kind of conditions where you can sacrifice someone’s rights."

"It’s never about me. use me as a mark for themselves to recognize their own form of life: I become their medium. I am always very clear about that."

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

"I think strategically China has come to a very crucial moment. They have to re-justify themselves. Even the past 20 to 30 years are based on a kind of destructive, suicidal act. Now they are trying to…"