Ai Weiwei best Courage Quotes – “The ‘Bird’s Nest’ National Stadium, which I helped to conceive, is designed to embody the Olympic spirit of ‘fair competition.’ It tells people that freedom is possible but needs fairness, courage and strength.”
Ai Weiwei best Education Quotes – “When you have strict censorship of the internet, young students cannot receive a full education. Their view of the world is imbalanced. There can be no true discussion of the issues.”
Ai Weiwei best Design Quotes – “Everyone wants an iPhone, but it would be impossible to design an iPhone in China because it’s not a product; it’s an understanding of human nature.”
Ai Weiwei best Chance Quotes – “I call on people to be ‘obsessed citizens,’ forever questioning and asking for accountability. That’s the only chance we have today of a healthy and happy life.”
Ai Weiwei best Attitude Quotes – “China and the U.S. are two societies with very different attitudes towards opinion and criticism. In China, I am constantly under surveillance. Even my slightest, most innocuous move can – and often is – censored by Chinese authorities.”
Ai Weiwei best Art Quotes – “The Chinese art world does not exist. In a society that restricts individual freedoms and violates human rights, anything that calls itself creative or independent is a pretence. It is impossible for a totalitarian society to create anything with passion and imagination.”
Ai Weiwei best Art Quotes – “If my art has nothing to do with people’s pain and sorrow, what is ‘art’ for?”
Ai Weiwei best Architecture Quotes – “I see the Beijing National Stadium as an architectural project. I accepted Herzog and De Meuron’s invitation to collaborate on the design, and our proposal won the competition. From beginning to end, I stayed with the project. I am committed to fostering relationships between a city and its architecture.”
To work in architecture you are so much involved with society, with politics, with bureaucrats. It’s a very complicated process to do large projects. You start to see the society, how it functions, how it works. Then you have a lot of criticism about how it works. – Ai Weiwei
