Marina Abramovic Quotes

Performance has to be mainstream art. This is what I'm fighting for. — Marina Abramovic

I want to dominate the man's world. — Marina Abramovic

It's okay that we're not perfect. It's okay that we all have problems. It's okay to cry, to show emotions. — Marina Abramovic

One of the most wonderful things for me is to watch somebody else perform, where I am the audience - I love this more than ever. — Marina Abramovic

I don't do husbands. I don't do children. — Marina Abramovic

I hate kitchens. I don't understand these enormous American kitchens that take up half the living room and then they just order pizza. — Marina Abramovic

When people ask me where I am from I never say, 'Serbia.' I always say, 'I come from a country that no longer exists.' — Marina Abramovic

An artist should not fall in love with another artist. — Marina Abramovic

People in New York never have time for anything. — Marina Abramovic

People have so much pain inside them that they're not even aware of. — Marina Abramovic

True love for whatever you are doing is the answer to everything. — Marina Abramovic

Even now, I have traces of the good little girl. When I am not performing, for instance, I am really very quiet and ordinary. — Marina Abramovic

In my work I have complete control, but about my life, I don't want to. — Marina Abramovic

When you have a nonverbal conversation with a total stranger, then he can't cover himself with words, he can't create a wall. — Marina Abramovic

But what is art other than revealing human nature? — Marina Abramovic

So many artists say they're not aware of audience. For me is unbelievable. — Marina Abramovic

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. — Marina Abramovic

I am pure performance, and Robert Wilson is pure theater. — Marina Abramovic

People put so much effort into starting a relationship and so little effort into ending one. — Marina Abramovic

Immaterial art is the strongest because there's no obstacle; there's just energy, and I believe in energy. — Marina Abramovic

All my inspiration comes from life. That's how it never stops, in a way. — Marina Abramovic

First of all, to do performance art, you really have to give 100 percent. I only know that I have to give 100 percent and then what happens, happens. — Marina Abramovic

You can't choreograph death, but you can choreograph your funeral. — Marina Abramovic

The hardest thing is to do something which is close to nothing because it is demanding all of you. — Marina Abramovic

We always project into the future or reflect in the past, but we are so little in the present. — Marina Abramovic

The public is in need of experiences that are not just voyeuristic. Our society is in a mess of losing its spiritual centre. — Marina Abramovic

Why am I not feminist? Maybe because I come from a country where my mother ruled my life. I never felt in any way that I couldn't achieve what I want. — Marina Abramovic

I am only interested in the ideas that become obsessive and make me feel uneasy. The ideas that I'm afraid of. — Marina Abramovic

The mind is crazy thing. To be focused is the most difficult thing. — Marina Abramovic

Happiness comes from the full understanding of your own being. — Marina Abramovic

I'm interested in utopian communities of the past. Many of them didn't survive and I'm examining closely the reasons they failed. — Marina Abramovic

I have always staged my fears as a way to transcend them. — Marina Abramovic

Theater is something that as a performance artist you have to hate. — Marina Abramovic

There's nothing more tragic than artists from the 70s still doing art from the 70s. — Marina Abramovic

The most revolutionary ideas are not sellable, but only mind-changing. — Marina Abramovic

I believe the artist has an obligation to society. — Marina Abramovic

I don't know anything about the afterlife because I haven't been there yet. — Marina Abramovic

I'm interested in asking: 'What does feminine energy mean?' I don't have answers - I just have questions and interesting examples. — Marina Abramovic

I didn't get paid for performances most of my life. If I did, I would be billionaire now, and I'm not. — Marina Abramovic

The function of the artist in a disturbed society is to give awareness of the universe, to ask the right questions, and to elevate the mind. — Marina Abramovic

Some couples buy pots and pans when they move in together. Ulay and I began planning how to make art together. — Marina Abramovic

Artists can do whatever they want! — Marina Abramovic

A powerful performance will transform everyone in the room. — Marina Abramovic

I test the limits of myself in order to transform myself, but I also take the energy from the audience and transform it. — Marina Abramovic

To me the pain and the blood are merely means of artistic expression. — Marina Abramovic

I had so much fear of blood, and the first thing I did was to cut myself to see what happens. That's the only way to rebuild yourself. — Marina Abramovic

If you do performance and music, it's not performance as music. — Marina Abramovic

To really change the way society thinks, you have to give your entire being to it until there's nothing left. — Marina Abramovic

Americans don't like European movies. — Marina Abramovic

A great artist has to be ready to fail. — Marina Abramovic

When you're 50, the best thing to do is dance the Argentinean tango. — Marina Abramovic

Because in the end you are really alone, whatever you do. — Marina Abramovic

An artist has to look at the future, to see what we can do better. — Marina Abramovic

The world doesn't need an artist who shows reality as it is. — Marina Abramovic

The only theatre I do is my own. Somehow, my life is the only life that I can play. — Marina Abramovic

Once you live in New York, you can't live anywhere else. Living in Paris is like going in slow motion. It's so bourgeois. I get so bored. — Marina Abramovic

If we go for the easy way, then we never change — Marina Abramovic

In America, everyone's always hiding their age. — Marina Abramovic

For me, the most difficult piece is the one I'm about to make. — Marina Abramovic

I just want to create situations where people forget time. — Marina Abramovic

We are actually living in a million parallel realities every single minute. — Marina Abramovic

In real life, you just work for the ordinary self, but in the front of audience you become the superself. That's a completely different thing. — Marina Abramovic

Time is an illusion. Time only exists when we think about the past and the future. Time doesn't exist in the present here and now. — Marina Abramovic

With classical ballet you are literally injuring yourself. — Marina Abramovic

What you're doing is not important. What is really important is the state of mind from which you do it. Performance — Marina Abramovic

Because we never stop silently loving those who we once loved out loud — Marina Abramovic

I am very clear that I am not a feminist. It puts you into a category and I don't like that. — Marina Abramovic

We always want to do things the way we like, that's why we never change. — Marina Abramovic

Cancer is an emotional disease. — Marina Abramovic

I hate studio. For me, studio is a trap to overproduce and repeat yourself. It is a habit that leads to art pollution. — Marina Abramovic

Artists should never think of themselves as an idol. Fame is a side effect of one's work. — Marina Abramovic

Art comes from life, not from the studio — Marina Abramovic

Because of technology, we don't develop telepathy. We don't use telepathy, but use, you know, the mobile phones. Why? — Marina Abramovic

I think 21st century should be art without objects. — Marina Abramovic

I believe that life is shorter; that is why we have to make experience longer. — Marina Abramovic

In theater, blood is ketchup; in performance, everything's real. — Marina Abramovic

We make such terrible mistakes with visual choices about beauty. — Marina Abramovic

Your ego can become an obstacle to your work. If you start believing in your greatness, it is the death of your creativity. — Marina Abramovic

For me, performance is a holy ground. When I perform, I really step into a different state of consciousness. — Marina Abramovic

Every party is the same, too many people, too little food, and you have to wait around. I'm extremely bored with parties. — Marina Abramovic

The only way to change consciousness and the world around us is to start with yourself. — Marina Abramovic

The hardest thing to do is something that is close to nothing. — Marina Abramovic

Television is completely another medium. For me, Lady Gaga and HBO are bringing us to mass culture. — Marina Abramovic

Don't even ask me why. I do not know, I have no answer to this insane behaviour. — Marina Abramovic

You know, James Franco is one of the most interesting figures because he has no rules. He breaks all the borders. — Marina Abramovic

I believe so much in the power of performance I don't want to convince people. I want them to experience it and come away convinced on their own. — Marina Abramovic

When Lady Gaga says I am her inspiration, you reach kids between 12 and 18. Now I am like a brand - jeans, Coca-Cola. — Marina Abramovic

I realise the power of art that does not hang on the walls of galleries. — Marina Abramovic

We are used to cleaning the outside house, but the most important house to clean is yourself - your own house - which we never do. — Marina Abramovic

It is incredible how fear is built into you, by your parents and others surrounding you. You're so innocent in the beginning; you don't know. — Marina Abramovic

In every ancient culture, there are rituals to mortify the body as a way of understanding that the energy of the soul is indestructible. — Marina Abramovic

From the moment you are born, you could die. I think as an artist it is important to meditate on that. — Marina Abramovic