The thing that's characteristic of my performance is that I literally do drag the whole studio onto the stage. Laurie Anderson More Quotes by Laurie Anderson More Quotes From Laurie Anderson We want to dedicate our music tonight to the great opportunity that we all have to begin to truly understand the events of the past few days and to act upon them with courage and with compassion as we make our plans to live in a completely new world. Laurie Anderson courage opportunity past Freedon is a scary thing. Most people don't want it. Laurie Anderson freedom scary people The fewer expectations you have, the better. Laurie Anderson fewer expectations You can do great things with low-tech stuff. Laurie Anderson technology stuff lows It's just such a great miracle when things do work, and they work for such a wild variety of crazy reasons. Laurie Anderson madness miracle crazy 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. Laurie Anderson graduation inspirational funny 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. Laurie Anderson irs hobbies art The best thing about the term 'performance artist' is that it includes just about everything you might want to do. Laurie Anderson artist want might . . . I wrote a letter to Thomas Pynchon asking, Can I have your permission to try to make an [adaptation] of your book? And I had no idea that he would answer me, because he's pretty elusive. But he did send a letter back that said, Yes, you can do that - as long as the only instrument in the opera is a banjo. I thought, That's an interesting way of saying No. Laurie Anderson yes-you-can book ideas 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. Laurie Anderson despair suffering people They say that Heaven is like TV... a perfect little world, that doesn't really need you. Laurie Anderson perfect heaven needs I really like books that you can kind of hear as much as think about, that are so graphic and visual. Laurie Anderson kind book thinking You know, for every dollar a man makes a woman makes 63 cents. Now, fifty years ago that was 62 cents. So, with that kind of luck, it’ll be the year 3,888 before we make a buck. Laurie Anderson luck men years Paradise Is exactly like Where you are right now Only much much Better. Laurie Anderson gardening heaven religion Computers are so deeply stupid. What bother me most when they talk about technology is they don't realize how much more exciting their minds are. That machine is stupid. And boring. It does just a few things and then it'll crash. People think, 'I am on the Net, I am in touch with the world'. Wrong! The point is how we work, not how machines work. Laurie Anderson technology stupid thinking I always feel like if someone has stage fright, I really try and say, "Listen, these people want you to succeed, they want to have a good evening. They want to see something really great. They don't want to see something crappy. They don't. They want to be at something really special." Laurie Anderson special trying people All of nature talks to me - if I could just figure out what it's saying - trees are swinging in the breeze. They're talking to me. Insects are rubbing their legs together. They're all talking. They're talking to me. Laurie Anderson together tree talking 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. Laurie Anderson style artist reality When you follow your thoughts and watch them attach to certain things, it makes certain things real and other things unreal, and you realize that this is all created by your mind. Laurie Anderson real mind watches 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. Laurie Anderson details knows wanted