To really change the way society thinks, you have to give your entire being to it until there's nothing left.

I am obsessive always, even as a child. On one side is this strict orthodox religion, on the other is communism, and I am this little girl pulled between the two. It makes me who I am. It turns me into the kind of person that Freud would have a field day with, for sure.

Good art is never made in studio. Good art I make in life.

People put so much effort into starting a relationship and so little effort into ending one.

I believe that life is shorter; that is why we have to make experience longer.

The entire aim of my work is to elevate the human spirit. We can put the human spirit down so easily.

When I was 14, I thought I looked terrible. I wore these typical Slavic shoes with metal bottoms so you could always hear me coming and this really ugly princess skirt and blouse with the top button closed. I had a boy haircut, a baby face covered with pimples, and a really big nose.

You can't choreograph death, but you can choreograph your funeral.

If you're a woman, it's almost impossible to establish a relationship. You're too much for everybody. It's too much. The woman always has to play this role of being fragile and dependent. And if you're not, they're fascinated by you, but only for a little while. And then they want to change you and crush you. And then they leave.

When I taught art, I was always asked, 'How do you know you're an artist? What makes you an artist?' And to me, it's like breathing. You don't question if you breathe; you have to breathe. So if you wake up in the morning, and you have to realize an idea, and there's another idea, and another, maybe you are really an artist.

We are actually living in a million parallel realities every single minute.

Today, our attention is less than the television advertisement. We're looking at six or seven problems constantly. We're living in the disturbed societies of cities. I think modern technology is one of the worst things human beings have invented.

I am not a therapist. I am not a spiritual leader. These elements are in the art: it is therapeutic, spiritual, social and political - everything. It has many layers. But art has to have many layers. If it doesn't, then forget it.

Yes, 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.

I hate studios. A studio is a black hole. I never use a studio to work. It's very artificial to go to a studio to get new ideas. You have to get new ideas from life, not from the studio. Then you go to the studio to realize the idea.

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

My mother and father were partisan national heroes: I learned sacrifice and discipline from them and that a private life is not as important as the message you want to leave.

Woody Allen has a wonderful line: 'Today I'm a star. What will I be tomorrow? A black hole?' That's very important to know - that you have the moment, then you lose the moment. You have to see your chances, you have to take them, and you also have to see when you don't have chances to take.

I am thrilled Lady Gaga has helped to teach her audience about long durational work and performance art.

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

I'm not feminist, by the way. I am just an artist.

If you're a baker, making bread, you're a baker. If you make the best bread in the world, you're not an artist, but if you bake the bread in the gallery, you're an artist. So the context makes the difference.

When people ask me where I am from I never say, 'Serbia.' I always say, 'I come from a country that no longer exists.'

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.

I have the greatest respect for Aborigine people, to whom I owe everything. The time I spent with members of the Pijantjatjara and Pintupi tribes in Australia was a transformative experience for me and one that has deeply and indelibly informed my entire life and art.

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.