"I’ve never planned any part of my career—except being an artist. And I was pushed into that corner because I thought being an artist was the only way to have a little freedom."

"But censorship by itself doesn’t work. It is, as Mao said, about the pen and the gun."

"At midnight they can come into your room and take you away. They can put a black hood on you, take you to a secret place and interrogate you, trying to stop what you’re doing. They threaten people, your family, saying: 'Your children won’t find jobs.'"

"The Internet is uncontrollable. And if the Internet is uncontrollable, freedom will win. It’s as simple as that."

"China might seem quite successful in its controls, but it has only raised the water level. It’s like building a dam: it thinks there is more water so it will build higher. But every drop of water is still in there. It doesn’t understand how to let the pressure out. It builds up a way to maintain control and push the problem to the next generation."

"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."

"This simple form of repression, of using the method of not letting anyone speak, will never succeed."

"The most unfair things that could have happened in a society fell upon a blind man. This is something that no one can accept or explain away with any excuse. Everyone will ask: 'Do we actually have to exist in a society like this?'"

"I will never leave China, unless I am forced to. Because China is mine. I will not leave something that belongs to me in the hands of people I do not trust."

"China has not established the rule of law and thus there is no justice."

"I have no sense of why I lost my freedom and if you do not know how you lost something, how can you protect it?""

"The 81 days of detention were a nightmare. I am not unique; it happened to many people in China. Conditions were extreme, created by a system that thinks it is above the law and has become a kind of monstrous machine. There were so many moments when I felt desperate and hopeless. But still, the next morning, I heard the birds singing."

"I often ask myself if I am afraid of being detained again. I love freedom as much as anybody else, maybe more than most. But it is a tragedy to live your life in fear. It is worse than actually losing your freedom."

"I’m so fearful, that’s not fearless... I act more brave because I know the danger’s really there. If you don’t act, the danger becomes stronger."

"Block [my blog] if you want, but I cannot self-censor, because that is the only reason I have the blog. We both know this is a game. You have to play your part, and I have to play mine."

"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."

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

"The Internet is the best thing that could have happened to China."

"We should leave behind discrimination, because it is narrow-minded and ignorant, denies contact and warmth, and corrodes mankind’s belief that we can better ourselves. The only way to avoid misunderstanding, war, and bloodshed is to defend freedom of expression and to communicate with sincerity, concern, and good intentions."

"Today China and the world will meet again. People will see that the planet is now smaller than at any time in history, that mankind should bid farewell to arrogance and indifference, to ignorance and discrimination, and understand that we share the same small piece of land. It will be a time to rediscover each other, to share what is good in life, to look each other in the eye and link all ten fingers."

"Measuring national prestige by gold medals is like using Viagra to judge the potency of a man."

"Consider why the quality of school dinners is declining, even as more and more golf courses are opened."

"I’m not sure I’m good at art, but I find an escape in it."

"Living in a system under the Communist ideology, an artist cannot avoid fighting for freedom of expression. You always have to be aware that art is not only a self-expression but a demonstration of human rights and dignity. To express yourself freely, a right as personal as it is, has always been difficult, given the political situation."

"Art is not an end but a beginning."

"I don’t know about five years from now. I have no plans for that. Maybe I’ll be forgotten by then."

"Self-censorship is insulting to the self. Timidity is a hopeless way forward."

"The fundamental problem is not that there are limits on voicing different opinions here. The problem is that the whole society is dying through lack of responsibility or involvement."

"[The Olympics are] an event manipulated into misleading people into believing that we have entered a new, successful and harmonious period in our history. This is not true."

"The think of artists as prostitutes. And in reality it’s true: in the Communist system artists just represent what the power structure seeks them to represent. It is prostitution."

"Contemporary art and the [Communist] Party are an impossible situation. It’s like oil and water—they can never mix."

"We see plenty of artistic work that reflects superficial social conditions, but very little work that questions fundamental values."

"There is no revolution like the Communist revolution. You simply burn all the books, kill all of the thinking people and use the poor proletariat to create a very simple benchmark to gauge social change."

"The great success of this system is that it makes the general public afraid of taking responsibility, afraid of taking a position or giving a definite answer, or even of making mistakes."

"The government may be made up of clever, sensible people. But if they do not believe in basic human values, the more clever or shrewd they are the greater the tragedy they will create."

"It is better to have a retarded president who respects human values than a clever government without human values."

"Any power or structure that seeks to maintain full control and is not open in any way to loosening its power eventually makes itself ridiculous."

"The Chinese [government] only superficially speaks the language of the international community."

"My blog is an extension of my thinking. Why should I deform my thinking simply because I live under a government that espouses an ideology which I believe to be totally against humanity?"

"The population is in a constant state of enforced dislocation. So let us hope that a totally new culture will come out of this."

"No matter how long our politicians order people to sing songs of praise, no matter how many fireworks they launch into the heavens, and no matter how many foreign leaders they embrace, they cannot arouse a genuine mood of joy and celebration among the people."

"It is as difficult [for Chinese politicians] to get a real smile [from the people] as it is to keep the sky blue and clouds white."

"The Olympics are an opportunity to redefine the country, but the message is always wrong."

"They tell us it will be about “emotions” and “friendship,” that it will be a night of joy. Who are they kidding?"

"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."

"Anyone who cares about truth should avoid not politics, but Olympic lies."

"It is absurd that so much money has been wasted on manipulating public opinion, on simulating emotion. This nation is notorious for its ability to make or fake anything cheaply. “Made-in-China” goods now fill homes around the world. But our giant country has a small problem. We can’t manufacture the happiness of our people."

"Neither fairness nor justice, neither reality nor humanity can be simulated or manipulated by wires or remote controls."

"My favorite word? It’s 'act.'"

"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."