“Images are made palpable, ironed flat by technology and, in turn, dictate the seemingly real through the representative.”

If I bring up political power, personal power, it sounds like they’re my terms, and they’re not.

I worked with someone else’s photos; I cropped them in whatever way I wanted and put words on top of them. I knew how to do it with my eyes closed. Why couldn’t that be my art?

It’s hard for me to understand how working-class people support themselves.

Do you know why language manifests itself the way it does in my work? It’s because I understand short attention spans.

You want it, you buy it, you forget it.

The reason why bookstores are going out of business in the States is that people just can’t focus on longer narratives now – even narrative film is in crisis in many ways, unless it’s an adventure film.

Prominence is cool, but when the delusion kicks in it can be a drag. Especially if you choose to surround yourself with friends and not acolytes.

I try to deal with the complexities of power and social life, but as far as the visual presentation goes I purposely avoid a high degree of difficulty.

What I’m trying to do is create moments of recognition.

I think I developed language skills to deal with threat. It’s the girl thing to do-you know, instead of pulling out a gun.

The so-called language of Barbara Kruger is vernacular language. Obviously, I pick through bits and pieces of it and figure out to some degree how to objectify my experience of the world, using pictures and words that construct and contain me.

Money talks. It makes art. It determines what food we eat, whether we are cured or die, and what shoes we wear.

Money talks. It starts rumors about careers and complicity and speaks of the tragedies and triumphs of our social lives.

I don’t necessarily think that installation is the only way to go. It’s just a label for certain kinds of arrangements.

It’s good to keep in mind that prominence is always a mix of hard work, eloquence in your practice, good timing and fortuitous social relations. Everything can’t be personalized.

The different aspects of my activity, whether it’s writing criticism, or doing visual work that incorporates writing, or teaching, or curating, is all of a single cloth, and I don’t make any separation in terms of those practices.

What man-made machine will ever achieve the complete perfection of even the goose’s wing?

This was why I loved my Grana. Being with her always made me laugh. She accepted life for what it was. She didn’t pretend or put on airs. She was just Grana.

You tempt me. I can’t be tempted. I’m not made to be tempted.

Close-Up has affected later films that I’ve made.

I came from a wealthy family. I made over my share of the estate to various charities.

Why couldn’t I have just made it home without seeing them? I wasn’t in the mood to play good freaking Samaritan to Beau and his trashy girlfriend.

I do believe that a film like Ten could never have been made with a 35mm camera. The first part of the film lasts 17 minutes, and by the end of that part, the kid has totally forgotten the camera.

Once I made up my mind that music was what I wanted to do, I never looked back.