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My mother and father were partisan national heroes: I learned sacrifice and discipline from them and that a private life is not as important as the message you want to leave.
Marina Abramovic
Artists should never think of themselves as an idol. Fame is a side effect of one's work.
Artists can do whatever they want!
I don't know anything about the afterlife because I haven't been there yet.
People put so much effort into starting a relationship and so little effort into ending one.
When I was 14, I thought I looked terrible. I wore these typical Slavic shoes with metal bottoms so you could always hear me coming and this really ugly princess skirt and blouse with the top button closed. I had a boy haircut, a baby face covered with pimples, and a really big nose.
The only theatre I do is my own. Somehow, my life is the only life that I can play.
I'm interested in utopian communities of the past. Many of them didn't survive and I'm examining closely the reasons they failed.
You know, James Franco is one of the most interesting figures because he has no rules. He breaks all the borders.
People have so much pain inside them that they're not even aware of.
If you do performance and music, it's not performance as music.
I hate studio. For me, studio is a trap to overproduce and repeat yourself. It is a habit that leads to art pollution.
I test the limits of myself in order to transform myself, but I also take the energy from the audience and transform it.
I used to have a recurring dream where I was at a party in a country house, surrounded by the same people each evening. Everyone would be singing and dancing and after a while I came to know the people; though, of course, they never really existed.
There are good artists that have children. Of course there are. They are called men.
Unconditional love with someone you've never met is a straightforward feeling that is so overwhelming and fulfilling.
We are used to cleaning the outside house, but the most important house to clean is yourself - your own house - which we never do.
I face so much jealousy, and I am incredibly upset about it.
I've been criticized by my generation, artists from the '70s - and there's nothing more tragic than artists from the '70s still doing art from the '70s - because I blur all these borders between fashion and pop.
From the very early stage when I started doing performance art in the '70s, the general attitude - not just me, but also my colleagues - was that there should not be any documentation, that the performance itself is artwork and there should be no documentation.
I am very clear that I am not a feminist. It puts you into a category and I don't like that.
Performance is there, and if you are not there in that moment it happened, it just stays in the memory. It's so immaterial and something this immaterial is very difficult to collect. Its difficult to buy, its how we can buy immaterial art.
I always sent my mother all these huge books I made. When my mother died, I was cleaning her cupboard, and these big books were only 20 pages long.
For me, the most difficult piece is the one I'm about to make.
I am only interested in the ideas that become obsessive and make me feel uneasy. The ideas that I'm afraid of.
We are actually living in a million parallel realities every single minute.
One of my aims was to be paid as well as a plumber. Plumber was better-paid than any performance artist who was always doing this for free. It is so important to make a good living from art. You know, John Cage, until he was 60, he couldn't pay electricity.
After my performance 'The Artist is Present (2010)' at MoMA in New York, many scientists became interested in why so many people who sat across from me began to cry. I was incredibly moved by this experience also, and was very curious to know what happens in our brains when we spend time not talking, just looking at one another.
I change so many houses and places where I live; I change them like I change socks. I don't have this absolute, kind of, how you say, attachment. My brother, if he just has to go to holiday to sleep in different bed, for him it is a disaster. I can sleep under this table or in a five-star hotel; I don't care.
I'm not feminist, by the way. I am just an artist.
From the moment you are born, you could die. I think as an artist it is important to meditate on that.
I don't have tattoos, I have scars!
I'm interested in asking: 'What does feminine energy mean?' I don't have answers - I just have questions and interesting examples.
People ask why there are so few female artists who succeed. It's because women are not ready to sacrifice as much as men. Women want a man, they want a family, they want to have children, they want to be loved, and to be an artist. And they can't; it's impossible.
I am thrilled Lady Gaga has helped to teach her audience about long durational work and performance art.
In America, everyone's always hiding their age.
You can't choreograph death, but you can choreograph your funeral.
Today, our attention is less than the television advertisement. We're looking at six or seven problems constantly. We're living in the disturbed societies of cities. I think modern technology is one of the worst things human beings have invented.
A powerful performance will transform everyone in the room.
I have the greatest respect for Aborigine people, to whom I owe everything. The time I spent with members of the Pijantjatjara and Pintupi tribes in Australia was a transformative experience for me and one that has deeply and indelibly informed my entire life and art.
The only time I really feel tired and old is when I look back; I always like to look just in the front of me. I'll always feel like I didn't finish enough, such a short time is left, and there's still so much to do.
The big problem of our modern society is that we feel that we are separated from the nature. But it's just the opposite. We are interrelated and our DNA is the same. And only when human beings understand that, the nature will not be obstacle.
When Lady Gaga says I am her inspiration, you reach kids between 12 and 18. Now I am like a brand - jeans, Coca-Cola.
I didn't get paid for performances most of my life. If I did, I would be billionaire now, and I'm not.
The most revolutionary ideas are not sellable, but only mind-changing.
Being an artist is not easy - I have always said that to the students I have taught over the years. It's a huge sacrifice.
Yes, I believe stories are very important to all performances. The life story of the performer shapes their work, and the life stories of the audience alter how they receive the work, what they read into the performer.
When you have heartbreak, what's important is that you don't go halfway. Go all the way down. Don't take pills that keep you in limbo. Cry out all the feelings. Then your own energy for life will put you up again. You become stronger.
You know, everyone is always talking about plastic surgery, or the technology, what to do. I really think it's important to help yourself with the technology if you want to feel better, but I am absolutely against any kind of monstrous cuts of the body, lifting that is beyond recognition, this kind of stuff.
You know how you feel somebody looking at you, and you turn, and somebody actually is? It's the same at an art gallery. You're looking at one portrait, turn around, and there is a work of art directly behind you. Because it's all energy. Every single thing has energy.
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