Vice Quotes

“To me, the ideological high wire
is for fools to balance on with their illusions.
It is better to leap into the void.
Isn't that what we all want anyway?—
to eliminate all pretense
till like the oppressed who in the end
identifies with the oppressor,
we accept the worst in ourselves
and are set free.”
― Ai, Vice: New and Selected Poems

“But I could say anything, couldn’t I?
Like a bed we make and unmake at whim,
the truth is always changing,
always shaped by the latest
collective urge to destroy.

from “The Testimony of J. Robert Oppenheimer”
― Ai, Vice: New and Selected Poems