Ai Weiwei on Life

"It became like a symbolic thing, to be “an artist.” After Duchamp, I realized that being an artist is more about a lifestyle and attitude than producing some product."

"They have to have an enemy. They have to create you as their enemy in order for them to continue their existence. It’s very ironic."

"Before blogging, I was living in the Middle Ages. Now my feelings for time and space are entirely different."

"Life is art. Art is life. I never separate it. I don’t feel that much anger. I equally have a lot of joy."

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

"Life is never guaranteed to be safe, so we better use it while we are still in good condition."

"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."

"No autocracy can lead people to believe that they are living in harmony and happiness."

"Myself, I try to search for the new way, always trying to set up a new possibility and to find the new tools to express myself. To reach a broader audience."

"I don’t have this concept that separates my art from my daily life. They are one thing to me. They are always one. How do you find the way to express yourself and how to communicate with others?"

"If Shakespeare were alive today, he might be writing on Twitter."

"I think my stance and my way of life is my most important art."

"I wouldn’t say I’ve become more radical: I was born radical."

"always tell me, “Weiwei, leave the nation, please.” Or “Live longer and watch them die.” Either leave, or be patient and watch how they die. I really don’t know what I’m going to do."

"In China, there is a long history of the government not revealing information, so it’s difficult for the Chinese people to ever know the truth. It is vital that we try to bring that truth to life."

"To me, to be political means you associate your work with a larger number of people’s living conditions, and that includes both mental and physical conditions. And you try to use your work to affect the situation."

"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 has been happily living in this world for seven years.'"

"Nothing can silence me as long as I am alive. I don’t give any kind of excuse. If I cannot come out or I cannot go in this is not going to change my belief. But when I am there, I am in this condition: I see it, I see people who need help. Then you know, I just want to offer my possibility to help them."

"You see a Party system that crushes down anybody who different opinions, who has different ideas in their mind. Simply to have different opinions can cost someone their life. They can be put in jail, they can be silenced, and they can . And the other people would take it, not giving support."

"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 these can be very personal and individual questions. But in certain times and certain places, your existence has to be associated with other people’s situations. You have to make a reaction to the living conditions. It’s not avoidable. You cannot just be blind about what is happening there. Such is the case in China."

"Modernism represents a true kind of living. Modernism is not about form or method or the works of a few artists, but rather about a necessary way of living. And only this kind of lifestyle can save China, because if we don’t have modernism, then we will die under the grasp of one or another ideology. Modernism at least says that every person is free and needs to honestly encounter his own life."

"I think right now is the moment. This is the beginning. We don’t know what is it the moment of, and maybe something much crazier will happen. But really, we see the sunshine coming in. It was clouded for maybe a hundred years. Our whole condition was very sad, but we still feel warmth, and the life in our bodies can still tell that there is excitement in there, even though death is waiting. We had better not enjoy the moment, but create the moment."