“Beijing's Olympics were very grand - they were trying to throw a party...” — Ai Weiwei Quote

Beijing's Olympics were very grand - they were trying to throw a party for the world, but the hosts didn't enjoy it. The government didn't care about people's feelings because it was trying to create an image.

I don't think it's worth discussing new directions in the context of Chinese art - there were no old directions, either. Chinese art has never had any clear orientation.

To the media, I have become a symbolic figure, critical of China. According to the government, I am a dangerous threat.

Censorship is saying: 'I'm the one who says the last sentence. Whatever you say, the conclusion is mine.' But the internet is like a tree that is growing. The people will always have the last word - even if someone has a very weak, quiet voice. Such power will collapse because of a whisper.

By a continuing process of inflation, government can confiscate, secretly and unobserved, an important part of the wealth of their citizens.

Those Tea Party people are crazy. I mean, they're lunatics. They close down the government, throw people out of their jobs - hundreds of thousands of people - and they say that they're doing it ultimately in the interest of creating jobs.

The tax money belongs to the taxpayers. It doesn't belong to the bureaucracy. And government is not a welfare system.

Truth is the glue that holds government together.

We put no greater trust in our government than when we turn on our faucet expecting clean water, and I applaud the Drinking Water and Groundwater Advisory Commission for their hard work in addressing this critical priority.