We've been civilized from the beginning. In the desert, it's a baroque city like Paris or Rome. Larry Harvey More Quotes by Larry Harvey More Quotes From Larry Harvey Artists deserve to make a living Larry Harvey artist deserve Well it seems to me, that all real communities grow out of a shared confrontation with survival. Communities are not produced by sentiment or mere goodwill. They grow out of a shared struggle. Our situation in the desert is an incubator for community. Larry Harvey community real struggle The moral person contemplates evil, the evil person commits it. And a person without a sense of humor can't distinguish between the two.... I know a lot of people who live in Marin County and contemplate spirituality and never get out of the hot tub. Larry Harvey evil two people You're free to be you, the only person, the only type of person that wouldn't like it here ultimately, that we'd recommend not come, are intolerant people. They get irritated. Larry Harvey top-news We don't use the trademark to market anything. It's our identity. Larry Harvey market anything identity use We take people to the threshold of religion. Our aim is to induce immediate experience that is beyond the odd, beyond the strange, and beyond the weird. It verges on the wholly other. Larry Harvey weird experience people religion I've learned never to expect people to be better than they are, but to always have faith that they can be more. Larry Harvey better never faith people I'll believe in utopia when I meet my first perfect person, and this community is made up of 70,000 imperfect persons. Larry Harvey meet community perfect believe Our preoccupation has always been to craft space in such a way as to induce social interactions that would in turn generate a sense of community and a culture, but starting from the very immediate issue of how action influences perception. Larry Harvey community space culture way Black Rock gives us all a chance to heal, to become ourselves. Larry Harvey rock us black chance People out here build whole worlds out of nothing, through cooperating. Larry Harvey here build nothing people Belief is thought at rest. Larry Harvey rest thought belief It avoids a self-conscious relationship to the act. We live in the most self-conscious society in the history of mankind. There are good things in that, but there are also terrible things. The worst of it is, that we find it hard to give ourselves to the cultural process. Larry Harvey good society relationship history They become the keepers of the mystery. They place themselves between the communicants of the religion, and the immediate experience. And then they dictate the terms on which you can have contact with this wonderful mystery. We don't dictate those terms. Larry Harvey place you experience religion When I was in my late 30s, I lit a figure on fire on Baker Beach in San Francisco. It was me, a friend, and maybe eight people, tops. There wasn't any premeditation to it at all. It was really just a product of San Franciscan bohemian milieu. Larry Harvey me fire beach people I'm actually a very shy person. You'd be surprised how many leaders are shy. They're not all extroverts by nature. Larry Harvey person you shy nature I grew up on a farm in Oregon, an adopted child, with one sibling, and parents the age of all my peers' grandparents. We lived in isolation from the people around us, and it was always a struggle to cope with as a child. The heart can really expire under those conditions. I always felt like I was looking at the world from the outside. Larry Harvey struggle age heart people We see culture as a self-organising thing. Larry Harvey thing see culture I think it's a little much to expect the organisation to solve the problem of racial parity. We do see a fast-increasing influx of Asians, black folks. I actually see black folks out here, unlike some of our liberal critics. Larry Harvey see think black problem My wife is from Jamaica. My ex-wife. My stepchildren - and then there's my son. So, it's a biracial family. Larry Harvey ex-wife family wife son