Quotes By Laurie Anderson

A lot of artists who have a certain style are expected to more or less keep doing their style. It's so easy to get into that rut of production.

I've never really had a hobby, unless you count art, which the IRS once told me I had to declare as a hobby since I hadn't made money with it.

I see and write things first as an artist, second as a woman, and third as a New Yorker. All three have built-in perspectives that aren't neutral.

One of the things I learned from working on the Olympics was, the world does not need another big multimedia show.

It's just such a great miracle when things do work, and they work for such a wild variety of crazy reasons.

I don't take compliments so well. I always hang my head and shuffle and kind of try to immediately forget.

I think women are excellent social critics.

My work is more about trying to ask good questions and not trying to come up with big shows. Every fashion company is doing that, every car company is doing that.

I'm an average enough person to point to the things I've gotten to see that are awe-inspiring.

The fewer expectations you have, the better.

I have written a few children's books. The first book that I wrote was for children. It was called "The Package", and it was a mystery story in pictures. It had no words.

People only stutter at the beginning of the word. They're not afraid when they get to the end of the word. There's just regret.

I think a lot of people in Washington are extremely suspicious of NASA.

The only stuff I don't like are Broadway musicals. I hate them. I don't even like to talk about it. I can't bear musicals.

Writing about music is like dancing about architecture.

I hate zoos.

People are really suffering these days. There's a lot of corporate triumph and a lot of personal despair as they wonder what are they working for.

I just sort of wish people would dance differently. It reminds me of teenage sex.

I've been trying to avoid goal-oriented behavior.

The problem with prototypes is they don't always work.

At the School of Visual Arts in New York, you can get your degree in Net art, which is really a fantastic way of thinking of theater in new ways.

My job is to make images and leave the decision-making and conclusion-drawing to other people.

Besides all those whaling details, Moby Dick is about someone who's looking for something so huge, something they've wanted all their life, yet they know when they find it, it will kill them.

A lot of words in English confuse the idea of life and electricity, like the word livewire.

I'm a real workaholic.

It's good to take a longer view and think, What would I really like to do if I had no limitations whatsoever?

I so much appreciate it when anybody tries to make something and tries to be an artist - I'm happy to see the work.

Something that has so much power must have life. Instruments have life.

Performance art is about joy, about making something that's so full of kind of a wild joy that you really can't put into words.

My secret dream is to write an epic poem. That's probably the most pretentious thing I've said.