Quotes from Miranda July

All I ever really want to know is how other people are making it through life—where do they put their body, hour by hour, and how do they cope inside of it.

The life you live in front of an audience is like an altered state - it's not totally real. I'm always, even in the course of one day, trying to find ways to balance both sides.

Thus far, everything I've made has come out of my really feeling it, out of the fire of my life.

If you want to have a character who falls into crisis, all you have to do is turn the Internet off, and then we all understand how that feels, when you suddenly just have time and yourself.

The moment I feel pressure to read a book, I instinctively rebel against it - which is probably one reason I didn't last long in college.

I'm not a cinephile. My films don't reference films. I'm more interested in rhythm and feeling.

I spend a lot of time obsessing about getting a dignified eight hours' sleep.

Would she understand that time had stopped while she was gone.

It's amazing how little you can see people but still stay in regular contact.

Women writers are often conflated with their narrators - as if we can't consciously construct fictional worlds from the ground up and can only write diary entries.

I've been using the same 'I Ching' since I was teenager when it was given to me by a fellow teenager; it seems too late to change now. I don't use it often, but when I do, it really does help. You can fool yourself, but not the 'I Ching.'

When I write, I wear earplugs. I don't want to be self-conscious. I don't want to be thinking about the fact that I'm thinking about it. I just want to be in it. It's one element of hypnosis.

Each couple's version of intimacy is so fascinating to me. A friend will tell me about her marriage, and I'll think, 'Yikes, they have horrible communication! They're going to get divorced!' And then I'll hear about them at another time and think, 'Wow, they love each other so much!'

I realize that we all think we might be terrible people. But we only reveal this before we ask someone to love us. It is a kind of undressing.

I could not make a move without making love.

I looked out the window for other passengers in love with their drivers, but we were well disguised, we pretended boredom and prayed for traffic.

Did you ever really love her? Not really no. But me? Yes. Even though I have no pizzazz?

When you can see the beauty of a tree, then you will know what love is.

I have a big brother who would make dolls' houses and playhouses and furniture out of wood. He was the one who taught me from such a young age that you could just make something. The physical act of gluing something together was really formative for me.

As a young artist working in multiple mediums, the work and especially the writings of artist Laszlo Moholy-Nagy were very important to me.

All I ever really want to know is how other people are making it through life—where do they put their body, hour by hour, and how do they cope inside of it.

Look at the sky: that is for you. Look at each person's face as you pass them on the street: those faces are for you. And the street itself, and the ground under the street, and the ball of fire underneath the ground: all these things are for you.

What a terrible mistake to let go of something wonderful for something real.

I laughed and said, Life is easy. What I meant was, Life is easy with you here, and when you leave, it will be hard again.