Top 97 Quotes & Sayings by Jenny Holzer

I'm always trying to bring unusual content to a different audience - a non-art-world audience.

It's necessary to start most work alone. But I'm tickled to death when I can pull somebody in or join someone, whether it's borrowing poetry or traveling with an associate.

Sloppy thinking gets worse over time.

I seldom have my stuff up unless I'm testing it. If I'm worrying about a painting, I put it up and see if I detest it quickly or slowly. Otherwise I have things by other artists.

It can be kind of gruesome at times, making things alone.

On the worst days, I don't feel like an artist.

Protect me from what I want.

I'd paint long strips of canvas and abandon them on the beach, or put bread out in geometric patterns for the pigeons downtown. I wanted people to find something nice and intriguing to puzzle over. Then I'd go back to see if the things were still there, or if anyone would notice.

The most profound things are inexpressible.

I wanted to support things that are helpful to people and maybe bash what I think is dangerous. So I switched from being everybody to being myself.

The epiphany for me was that I wasn't a writer, and I had to do something with these texts. I put them in the streets as posters.

So much of art-making is about reducing things to the essentials, so I don't feel particularly crippled by this. I don't want it to look natural because then I would be making a documentary film.

It's fun wandering around other people's minds.

The desperate things seem to require attention, the lovely things seem to elicit celebration. If I had to choose, I would go to the awful in the hope that doing something could yield a happier result.

I wanted to be an abstract painter, but I was rotten at it.

I moved to New York in the 1970s and started writing when I was at the Whitney Museum Independent Study Program.

That's the test of street art - to see if anybody stopped. People would cross out ones they didn't like and would star others. I liked that people would engage with them.

I think of a piece, and then people who are competent fabricate it. But lately I've started finger painting, which probably should be a joke but isn't!

I get up about four times a night and go back to sleep, or not. Then I swill tea around 8 a.m. I answer e-mail, while I stall thinking about whatever scares me.

I really like doing the laundry, because I succeed at it. But I loathe putting it away. It is already clean.

I am not free because I can be exploded anytime.

I began to see that the short texts I was writing were poster material.

I used language because I wanted to offer content that people - not necessarily art people - could understand.

I suspect you've noticed that making art can be lonely.

Company makes my day.

Well, I think in trying to make life seem real enough that one is moved to do something about the more atrocious things. By going really far afield into a completely fake world, maybe there's a chance to make things resonant somehow - or in this case, truly terrifying. To make it as bad as the real stuff that's happening.

I'd been doing projects outdoors for the public. I made pigeons eat geometry by putting bread out in rhomboids and triangles. I don't know if this activity made sense, but the work was available.

Lack of charisma can be fatal.

When my daughter was young, she thought all electronic signs were mine.

Expiring for love is beautiful but stupid.

One thing that changed when I moved upstate was that I became interested in different materials. I started making the stone benches because I was seeing rocks.

One of the glories and terrors of working in public is that you do see if your output means anything to anyone.

Alienation produces eccentrics or revolutionaries.

It is in your self-interest to find a way to be very tender.

Someone else's body is a place for your mind to go.

It's better to be a good person than a famous person.

You are a victim of the rules you live by.

Fear is the most elegant weapon, your hands are never messy

A sense of duty imprisons you.

Ensure that your life stays in flux.

Enjoy yourself because you can't change anything anyway

Romantic love was invented to manipulate women

TRYING TO BE POPULAR IN HIGH SCHOOL IS LIKE TRYING TO BE MAYOR OF A CITY THAT WON'T EXIST IN FOUR YEARS.

Turn soft and lovely any time you have a chance

All things are delicately interconnected.

Faithfulness is a social not a biological law.

BY YOUR RESPONSE TO DANGER IT IS EASY TO TELL HOW YOU HAVE LIVED AND WHAT HAS BEEN DONE TO YOU. YOU SHOW WHETHER YOU WANT TO STAY ALIVE, WHETHER YOU THINK YOU DESERVE TO, AND WHETHER YOU BELIEVE IT'S ANY GOOD TO ACT.

Being alone with yourself is increasingly unpopular.

Drama often obscures the real issues

When you start liking pain things start to get interesting.

Everyone's work is equally important.

If you have many desires your life will be interesting.

My arrogance knows no bounds and I will make no peace today, and you should be so lucky to find a woman like me.

Abuse of power comes as no surprise

I wasn't sure I was an artist, so I thought maybe I just was throwing ideas out for people to consider.

Slipping into madness is good for the sake of comparison

Expressing anger is necessary.

At times inactivity is preferable to mindless functioning.

THERE IS A PERIOD WHEN IT IS CLEAR THAT YOU HAVE GONE WRONG BUT YOU CONTINUE. SOMETIMES THERE IS A LUXURIOUS AMOUNT OF TIME BEFORE ANYTHING BAD HAPPENS.

The greatest disappointment is when you let yourself down.