Quotes from 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.

I hate studios. A studio is a black hole. I never use a studio to work. It's very artificial to go to a studio to get new ideas. You have to get new ideas from life, not from the studio. Then you go to the studio to realize the idea.

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

I always do big birthday things. In three years, I'm 70. I'm going to do something outrageous. In America, everyone's always hiding their age.

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

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

I think communication starts when words are not present at all ... I think we put so much emphasis on language, actually silence is so much more important.

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

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

Americans don't like European movies.

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.

You go to India and you see the poorest village somewhere in the middle of India. And the poor family is happier than any rich billionaire in this country because of spirituality.

I didn't want children because I didn't want them to suffer. I had a dog, which suffered enough. I don't even want a goldfish or a turtle. I have a desert plant in my house that needs a glass of water maybe once a year, which I can deliver.

We never rehearse the full time. Yesterday we rehearsed only ten minutes. I don't want him to rehearse 30 minutes [of silence]. Why? Because from my performance experience, I realize that you absolutely have to rely on the energy of the public. If you just sit [in] the empty space for the 30-minute rehearsal, this is pure torture.

Early on, I had to perform wherever I had the possibility. My audience was anything from 10 to 40 people. Then I started getting invited to the festivals, finding curators interested in presenting new forms of art, and going to important exhibitions. So many artists don't have that kind of stamina. They need collectors to buy the work or galleries to take care of them. I didn't have a gallery for at least 30 years. I had to do everything myself.

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

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

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

From a very early time, I understood that I only learn from things I don't like. If you do things you like, you just do the same shit. You always fall in love with the wrong guy. Because there's no change. It's so easy to do things you like. But then, the thing is, when you're afraid of something, face it, go for it. You become a better human being.

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

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.

I hate repetition. Even when I am home and have to buy milk, I go a different way each time to avoid having a habit of anything. Habits are really bad. So to me it is really important to live in what I call the spaces in-between. Bus stations, trains, taxis or waiting rooms in airports are the best places because you are open to destiny, you are open to everything and anything can happen.

You create the space and time in which performance is going to happen. You physically enter. And whatever happens in that frame is the part of the piece that you can't control. If earthquake come, if electricity stop, if somebody scream or have epileptic attack. If people vomit. Everything is a part of it. The only thing is to give yourself completely.

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