Top 60 Marina Abramović Quotes (2024 Update)

1. “Because we never stop silently loving those who we once loved out loud.”

— Marina Abramović

2. “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 Abramović

3. “If we go for the easy way, then we never change.”

— Marina Abramović

4. “Immaterial art is the strongest because there’s no obstacle; there’s just energy, and I believe in energy.”

— Marina Abramović

5. “I have always staged my fears as a way to transcend them.”

— Marina Abramović

6. “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 Abramović

7. “A powerful performance will transform everyone in the room.”

— Marina Abramović

8. “In the performer’s body, you don’t care how you look. It doesn’t matter if you’re old, fat, beautiful, or ugly. It doesn’t change anything. The only thing is your charisma and how you express your idea.”

— Marina Abramović

9. “But what is art other than revealing human nature?”

— Marina Abramović

10. “I want to dominate the man’s world.”

— Marina Abramović

11. “When you have a nonverbal conversation with a total stranger, then he cant cover himself with words, he cant create a wall.”

— Marina Abramović

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

— Marina Abramović

13. “We always want to do things the way we like, that’s why we never change.”

— Marina Abramović

14. “Don’t even ask me why. I do not know, I have no answer to this insane behaviour.”

— Marina Abramović

15. “A great artist has to be ready to fail.”

— Marina Abramović

16. “Art comes from life, not from the studio.”

— Marina Abramović

17. “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 Abramović

18. “When you have so much pain, you think you will lose consciousness. If you say to yourself, ‘So what, lose consciousness,’ the pain goes away.”

— Marina Abramović

19. “Most people are more comfortable with what is familiar. I’ve spent my life doing the opposite.”

— Marina Abramović

20. “What you get is the opening of your mind. I’m not preaching any new religion; I’m ritualizing everyday activities. You drink the water. You count the rice. You sit in Crystal Cave. You lie in Levitation Chamber. You push yourself to a new level.”

— Marina Abramović

21. “From the moment you are born, you could die. I think as an artist it is important to meditate on that.”

— Marina Abramović

22. “All my inspiration comes from life. That’s how it never stops, in a way.”

— Marina Abramović

23. “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 Abramović

24. “The hardest thing to do is something that is close to nothing.”

— Marina Abramović

25. “True love for whatever you are doing is the answer to everything.”

— Marina Abramović

26. “The only way to change consciousness and the world around us is to start with yourself.”

— Marina Abramović

27. “I made a tape recording of a bridge collapsing and I wanted to play it suddenly and very loudly when people were walking over a big bridge in Belgrade. The council forbid it. Their imagination is tiny; mine is big. I want always to shake everything up.”

— Marina Abramović

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

— Marina Abramović

29. “Once, Picasso was asked what his paintings meant. He said, “Do you ever know what the birds are singing? You don’t. But you listen to them anyway.” So, sometimes with art, it is important just to look.”

— Marina Abramović

30. “In my work I have complete control, but about my life, I don’t want to.”

— Marina Abramović

31. “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.”

— Marina Abramović

32. “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 Abramović

Featured in: Firsts Quotes

33. “When you’re 50, the best thing to do is dance the Argentinean tango.”

— Marina Abramović

34. “I just want to create situations where people forget time.”

— Marina Abramović

35. “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.”

— Marina Abramović

Featured in: Quotes About Stories

36. “I notice if I’m too fat or if I’m too ugly or there’s skin hanging or whatever. When my clothes start not fitting, I get really self-conscious about what I eat.”

— Marina Abramović

37. “Happiness comes from the full understanding of your own being.”

— Marina Abramović

38. “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.”

— Marina Abramović

39. “If you see a Renaissance body, this is completely ugly in this time. Everybody has to be skinny. But the Renaissance body with incredible flow of the meat everywhere, it was beauty.”

— Marina Abramović

40. “To me the pain and the blood are merely means of artistic expression.”

— Marina Abramović

41. “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 Abramović

42. “My mother and father had a terrible marriage. They celebrated their wedding anniversary one year with their friends. Why did they celebrate? Maybe because they had lasted so many years without killing each other.”

— Marina Abramović

43. “Because of technology, we don’t develop telepathy. We don’t use telepathy, but use, you know, the mobile phones. Why?”

— Marina Abramović

44. “Every party is the same, too many people, too little food, and you have to wait around. I’m extremely bored with parties.”

— Marina Abramović

45. “Talking about performance is such a strange thing because it’s so immaterial. We are talking about soft matter. We are talking about something that is invisible. You can’t see it. You can’t touch it. You just can feel it.”

— Marina Abramović

46. “The most revolutionary ideas are not sellable, but only mind-changing.”

— Marina Abramović

47. “There’s nothing more tragic than artists from the 70s still doing art from the 70s.”

— Marina Abramović

48. “You can’t choreograph death, but you can choreograph your funeral.”

— Marina Abramović

49. “I don’t know anything about the afterlife because I haven’t been there yet.”

— Marina Abramović

50. “It’s very important that young artists push boundaries, because sometimes you have this urge to do something – like the impulsive and dangerous urges I had as a child – and if you don’t follow through with it you might miss out on a developmental experience.”

— Marina Abramović