Ai Weiwei Quotes

I think Donald Trump is a complete and utter buffoon and a cancer to our society.

Architecture is a negotiated art, and it's highly political, and if you want to make buildings, there is diplomacy required.

The future of architecture is culture.

For me, architecture is the means, not the end. It's a means of making different life forms possible.

For many years, I have lived uncomfortably with the belief that most planning and architectural design suffers for lack of real and basic purpose. The ultimate purpose, it seems to me, must be the improvement of mankind.

Critics intend on changing the balance of public opinion and of political power.

Architecture is a political art connecting our values to the ages.

The difference between architecture and engineering comes in only with the creation of schools. It's a bureaucratic distinction. The result of both disciplines is the construction of objects in a landscape.

What I'm passionate about is History, and politics interest me only insofar as it is the cross-section of History in the present.

If you want to be loved by everyone, don't go into politics.

Design is about creating spaces for people to enjoy and of course, creating moments where you elevate the spirit, but 'design for good' is figuring out a program that not only creates better spaces, but creates jobs, creates new industry and really kind of raises the conversation about how we rebuild.

President Obama's biggest weakness is weakness.

My passion and great enjoyment for architecture, and the reason the older I get the more I enjoy it, is because I believe we - architects - can effect the quality of life of the people.

There's a snobbery at work in architecture. The subject is too often treated as a fine art, delicately wrapped in mumbo-jumbo. In reality, it's an all-embracing discipline taking in science, art, maths, engineering, climate, nature, politics, economics.

Almost every time I make a building, some people will condemn it straight to Hell.

Architecture has always been a very idealistic profession. It's about making the world a better place, and it works over the generations because people go on vacation and they look for it.

I think architecture is rarely the product of a single ideology. It's more like it can be shaped by a really big idea. It can accommodate a lot of life forms.

In a democratic society, we politicians have to accept criticism, especially when it is founded.

It's important for people who criticise architects - whether what they build is or isn't to your taste - to appreciate how they devote themselves and put everything into bringing a building into existence.

The world we build tomorrow is born in the stories we tell our children today. Politics moves the pieces. Education changes the game.

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.

You may not be thinking about politics, but politics is thinking about you.

Washington is not a geographical entity, it is a state of mind.... People understand how Cleveland works. They even understand how New York City works, but they can't figure Washington out.

Policy making is not as easy as slurping down cabbage soup.

Public opinion is the most potent monarch this world knows.