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.

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

Artists can do whatever they want!

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

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

I had difficult mother, difficult childhood like she had. She is Sagittarius like I am. I almost died from broken heart because of love. And she really did.

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

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

I grew up with my grandmother because my parents were making careers and didn't have much time for me. She was a highly religious Serbian Orthodox, spending most of her time in church. It's a great mix, and I use all these elements in my work.

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

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

Aborigines are not just the oldest race in Australia; they are the oldest race on the planet. They look like dinosaurs.

There's plenty of talented women. Why do men take over the important positions? It's simple. Love, family, children - a woman doesn't want to sacrifice all of that.

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

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

I give people a space to simply sit in silence and communicate with me deeply but non-verbally.

I want people to come to me open and vulnerable. When they come to the gallery, they have to leave their watches, their computers, their Blackberrys, iPads, iPhones, because we are so incredibly used to technology, and I wanted to remove that.

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

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

I want to dominate the man's world.

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

There's not any subject the public doesn't know about me. I don't have secrets, and this is so liberating because this makes me free.

You know, everyone is always talking about plastic surgery, or the technology, what to do. I really think it's important to help yourself with the technology if you want to feel better, but I am absolutely against any kind of monstrous cuts of the body, lifting that is beyond recognition, this kind of stuff.

Of course I dream to have this perfect man who does not want to change me. And I'm so not marriage material, it's terrible. But my dream is to have those Sunday mornings, where you're eating breakfast and reading newspapers with somebody.

Cancer is an emotional disease.

I face so much jealousy, and I am incredibly upset about it.

The big problem of our modern society is that we feel that we are separated from the nature. But it's just the opposite. We are interrelated and our DNA is the same. And only when human beings understand that, the nature will not be obstacle.

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.

In every ancient culture, there are rituals to mortify the body as a way of understanding that the energy of the soul is indestructible. The more I think about energy, the simpler my art becomes, because it is just about pure presence.

A powerful performance will transform everyone in the room.

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

I was friends with Susan Sontag the last four years of her life. She had this amazing charisma and so much energy, but she had a sad little funeral in Montparnasse in Paris.

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

I really think there's no difference between an art piece made by a man and one made by a woman. Is it a good art piece or a bad art piece? Of course, if you're female, you're maybe dealing with different issues.

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

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.

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.

You know I very much respect Yvonne Rainer, she is very important - in American dance, the entire development of modern dance, and creating a wonderful physical language.

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

Performance is there, and if you are not there in that moment it happened, it just stays in the memory. It's so immaterial and something this immaterial is very difficult to collect. Its difficult to buy, its how we can buy immaterial art.

You see, what is my purpose of performance artist is to stage certain difficulties and stage the fear the primordial fear of pain, of dying, all of which we have in our lives, and then stage them in front of audience and go through them and tell the audience, 'I'm your mirror; if I can do this in my life, you can do it in yours.'

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.

Most of the time, the artists are not supposed to wear the fashion. It is always seen as a vanity. But I think I don't need to prove anything in my life. I can honestly say I love fashion and I can be many things at the same time.

You know, art is very emotional business. But mostly it becomes not emotional, the fabric of commodity. It becomes business. It becomes so many different things. Because we forgot there was emotions involved.

I think 21st century should be art without objects.