Christian Marclay Quotes & Sayings

Since I was a child I have always been cutting things out and gluing them together rather than drawing them. — Christian Marclay

Every person's remembering will be different. That engagement is important, I think. — Christian Marclay

The process of editing is what I enjoy most - putting the pieces together and making sense out of them. — Christian Marclay

It was part of a financial situation. I could only afford records in thrift stores. Then you could find wonderful things, but now everything is a collectible. I like the recycling idea
using the stuff that people don't want anymore, and make new music out of it. There was an element of looking back and listening to your parents' records and doing something with that stuff. Sort of acknowledging the past while rejecting it at the same time. — Christian Marclay

We go to the movies to forget about time, to be in a dream state. And it's entertainment, distraction, from the fact that everything is kind of crumbling in front of our eyes. — Christian Marclay

[Photography] can be tiny, on your phone, or it can be a billboard, or a film-sized projection, or printed in a magazine. I don't think we've been in a time before when so much photography is available in so many formats, when everybody is a photographer. — Christian Marclay

Most of my pictures are really small statements. There's a banality to them. — Christian Marclay

If the music in a groove fits with what you're playing, then play it; if not, then you can play it backwards. If that doesn't work, you try it at a different speed. If it really doesn't work you just break it. The whole ritual to put a record on a turntable just to listen to it, I don't do that too often. — Christian Marclay

I've never been a big cinephile, which may be why I could treat 'The Clock' like a puzzle and force the pieces to fit together in odd ways. — Christian Marclay

With improvisation, I just do it. It might be a total failure but then you just throw the dice again. — Christian Marclay

When you take something apart, you get a great sense of what it took to originally put it together. — Christian Marclay

If you make something good and interesting and not ridiculing someone or being offensive, the creators of the original material will like it. — Christian Marclay

'Record Without A Cover' was about allowing the medium to come through, making a record that was not a document of a performance but a record that could change with time, and would be different from one copy to the next. — Christian Marclay

You start with an idea but then so many things can happen. — Christian Marclay

You can get so many sounds out of one record. Every record can be used in some way. — Christian Marclay

I have never been much of a painter. — Christian Marclay

It's good to get away from the editing suite. It's very unhealthy to be sitting in front of the screen for too long. — Christian Marclay

I admire the abstract expressionists and pop artists so right now I'm referencing American '60s art and at the same time referencing Japanese manga culture. — Christian Marclay

People who care about records are always giving me a hard time. I mean, I would destroy records in performances, and break them, and whatever I could do to them to create a sound that was something else than just the sound that was in the groove. — Christian Marclay

Unlike sitting at a computer screen, printing is very direct and hands-on. — Christian Marclay

As an artist, you're always somewhat obscure. We're not talking Hollywood. — Christian Marclay

It's the way life is, I suppose. Whatever happens, you deal with it. — Christian Marclay

These things I sample, or clip, are things that we share - music, films, sounds. It triggers a layer of participation from the audience as they recognize the material and remember it. — Christian Marclay

Art is all in the details. — Christian Marclay

Photography is solitary and there are lags between seeing with your eyes and seeing through the lens, and then seeing the image on your computer ... I often see things after the fact. This revelatory quality includes a sense of playfulness, because you're not sure what the consequences are going to be. — Christian Marclay