Jenny Holzer Quotes & Sayings

You confuse me with something that is in you. I will not predict how you want to use me. — Jenny Holzer

Use what is dominant in a culture to change it quickly. — Jenny Holzer

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

There's a fine line between information and propaganda. — Jenny Holzer

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. — Jenny Holzer

Savor kindness because cruelty is always possible later. — Jenny Holzer

Destroy superabundance. Starve the flesh, shave the hair, clarify the mind, define the will, restrain the senses, leave the family, flee the church, kill the vermin,vomit the heart, forget the dead. Limit time, forgo amusement, deny nature, reject acquaintances, discard objects, forget truths, dissect myth, stop motion, block impulse, choke sobs, swallow chatter. Scorn joy, scorn touch, scorn tragedy, scorn liberty, scorn constancy, scorn hope, scorn exaltation, scorn reproduction, scorn variety, scorn embellishment, scorn release, scorn rest, scorn sweetness, scorn light. It's a question of form as much as function. It is a matter of revulsion. — Jenny Holzer

With all the holes in you already there's no reason to define the outside environment as alien. — Jenny Holzer

Ensure that your life stays in flux. — Jenny Holzer

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

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. — Jenny Holzer

I KNOW WHO YOU ARE
AND IT DOES ME
NO GOOD AT ALL — Jenny Holzer

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. — Jenny Holzer

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. — Jenny Holzer

Expressing anger is necessary. — Jenny Holzer

If you behaved nicely, the communists wouldn't exist. — Jenny Holzer

Everyone's work is equally important. — Jenny Holzer

A lot of professionals are crackpots. — Jenny Holzer

IT'S AN EXTRAORDINARY FEELING
WHEN PART OF YOUR BODY ARE
TOUCHED FOR THE FIRST TIME.
I'M THINKING OF THE SENSATIONS
FROM SEX AND SURGERY. — Jenny Holzer

Ruin your fucking self before they do. Otherwise they'll screw you because you're a nobody. They'll keep you alive but you'll have to crawl and say "thank-you" for every bone they throw. You might as well stay drunk or shoot junk and be a crazy fucker. If the rich guys want to play with you, make them get their hands dirty. Send them away gagging, or sobbing if they're soft-hearted. You'll be left alone if you're frightening, and dead you're free! — Jenny Holzer

Disgust is the appropriate response to most situations — Jenny Holzer

When you start liking pain things start to get interesting. — Jenny Holzer

IT'S NO FUN WATCHING PEOPLE WOUND
THEMSELVES SO THAT THEY CAN HOLE UP,
NURSE THEMSELVES BACK TO HEALTH,
AND REPEAT THE CYCLE.
THEY DON'T KNOW WHAT ELSE TO DO. — Jenny Holzer

Food won't go down when you know your mother didn't want you, never liked to feed you, always hated you in her rooms. You were wrong to clutch and swallow and move your mouth. You must not be flushed, layered in fat or ripe from meat or she will despise your sight. Your skeleton cries, "I make no demands, I am ashamed of my needs, I am unworthy. I'm aware of those more deserving, those with prior and urgent claims to food." Skeleton says, "My safety is in slightness, my pride is denial. My victory is no gluttony, no guilt. — Jenny Holzer

A little knowledge can go a long way. — Jenny Holzer

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. — Jenny Holzer

A sense of duty imprisons you. — Jenny Holzer

THERE'S NO REASON TO SLEEP
CURLED UP AND BENT.
IT'S NOT COMFORTABLE,
IT'S NOT GOOD FOR YOU, AND IT
DOESN'T PROTECT YOU FROM DANGER.
IF YOU'RE WORRIED ABOUT AN ATTACK
YOU SHOULD STAY AWAKE
OR SLEEP LIGHTLY WITH
LIMBS UNFURLED FOR ACTION. — Jenny Holzer

IF THE HOUSE IS BITTER COLD,
ALL THE FLUIDS THEREIN,
IF NOT FROZEN, ARE STIFF AND SLOW. — Jenny Holzer

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

WHAT A SHOCK WHEN THEY TELL YOU
IT WON'T HURT AND YOU ALMOST
TURN INSIDE OUT WHEN THEY BEGIN. — Jenny Holzer

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

IT CAN BE HELPFUL TO THINK OF
THEM EATING YOUR FAVORITE FOODS
AND OCCASIONALLY THROWING UP
AND GETTING BITS STUCK
IN THEIR NOSES. — Jenny Holzer

Protect me from what I want. — Jenny Holzer

Killing is unavoidable but is nothing to be proud of — Jenny Holzer

FEW CAN IGNORE A BABY'S CRIES,
EVEN IF THE RESPONSE IS IRRITATION.
THIS IS ONE OF THE BUILT IN SAFEGUARDS
THAT IS SUPPOSED TO GUARANTEE
THE SURVIVAL OF THE RACE. — Jenny Holzer

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

It's fun wandering around other people's minds. — Jenny Holzer

Exceptional people deserve special concessions. — Jenny Holzer

Stupid people shouldn't breed. — Jenny Holzer

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

Slipping into madness is good for the sake of comparison — Jenny Holzer

A sense of timing is the mark of a genius. — Jenny Holzer

In a dream you saw a way to survive and you were full of joy. — Jenny Holzer

Romantic love was invented to manipulate women — Jenny Holzer

SOME PEOPLE LIKE TO NIBBLE ON
THE INSIDES OF THEIR OWN CHEEKS.
IV'E SEEN AN OTHERWISE LOVELY GIRL
CONTORT HER FACE TO REACH A FAVORITE SPOT.
THERE ARE BIT LINES WHERE REPEATED NIPS
HAVE BUILT RIDGES OF SCAR TISSUE. — Jenny Holzer

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

Hands on your breast can keep your heart beating. — Jenny Holzer

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

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. — Jenny Holzer

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. — Jenny Holzer

OBVIOUSLY YOU STRIKE OUT
AGAINST PEOPLE WITHIN RANGE.
IT'S CATHARTIC TO AFFECT
SOMEONE WHEN YOU'RE ANGRY.
ALTERNATIVELY, CHOOSE
ENEMIES IMPOSSIBLY FAR AWAY
SO YOU NEVER HAVE TO FIGHT. — Jenny Holzer

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! — Jenny Holzer

Expiring for love is beautiful but stupid. — Jenny Holzer

I try to excite myself so I stay crazy. — Jenny Holzer

Ideals are replaced by conventional goals at a certain age. — Jenny Holzer

It's important to keep life simple, and if I'm traveling, I only can do a couple of things, and those are the things that I'm meant to be doing. — Jenny Holzer

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

SPIT ALL OVER SOMEONE WITH A MOUTHFUL OF MILK IF YOU WANT TO FIND OUT SOMETHING ABOUT THEIR PERSONALITY FAST. — Jenny Holzer

Deviants are sacrificed to increase group solidarity. — Jenny Holzer

Drama often obscures the real issues — Jenny Holzer

THE IMPULSE IS TO SQUEEZE AND
FONDLE BABY WILD ANIMALS
BUT THEN THEY'D BE BROKEN AND
WHAT GOOD WOULD THEY BE? — Jenny Holzer

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

How do you resign yourself to something that will never be? You stop wanting just that thing. You go numb. Or you kill the agent of desire. — Jenny Holzer

Boredom makes you do crazy things. — Jenny Holzer

I am not free because I can be exploded anytime. — Jenny Holzer

Being alone with yourself is increasingly unpopular. — Jenny Holzer

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. — Jenny Holzer

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. — Jenny Holzer

Alienation produces eccentrics or revolutionary. — Jenny Holzer

Go where people sleep and see if they are safe — Jenny Holzer

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. — Jenny Holzer

FEMALE VOICE: 'The truth is people are pushed around by two men who move all the bodies on earth into patterns that please them.'

MALE VOICE: 'I love my mind when it is fucking the cracks of events.'

MALE VOICE: 'What I give to all the people who do not want to live with me is arithmetic.'

FEMALE VOICE: 'Everyday, I do nothing important because I am scared blank and lazy. But then the men come. I put my mouth on them. I spit and write with the wet.'

MALE VOICE: 'I was not born live. This body grew but I did not feel cells split. — Jenny Holzer

HOW DO YOU FIND THE RIGHT POSITION
TO LIE DOWN WITH PEOPLE
OR EVEN ANIMALS?
OFTEN ONE OF THE PARTNERS IS
SMOTHERED OR CONTORTED.
WHEN DONE PROPERLY, THOUGH,
EVERYONE IS HAPPY. — Jenny Holzer

Sloppy thinking gets worse over time. — Jenny Holzer

Any surplus is immoral. — Jenny Holzer

It is embarrassing to be caught and killed for stupid reasons — Jenny Holzer

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

WHEN YOU'RE TRYING SOMETHING NEW,
YOU'RE TORN BETWEEN
ANTICIPATING A DELIGHTFUL SURPRISE
AND THINKING YOU'RE A FOOL TO
IGNORE WHAT YOU KNOW YOU LIKE. — Jenny Holzer

MANY DOGS RUN WILD IN THE CITY.
SOME ARE ABANDONED BY THEIR OWNERS
AND OTHERS ARE BORN TO LOST DOGS.
STRAYS HAVE A LIMITED LIFE EXPECTANCY
EVEN WHEN THEY BAND TOGETHER IN PACKS.
THEY ARE PREY TO DISEASE, PARASITES,
WEATHER AND AUTOMOBILES.
THEY TEND TO BE FRIGHTENED AND VICIOUS.
THEY ARE UNABLE TO PROTECT THEMSELVES
OR ANYONE ELSE. — Jenny Holzer

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

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

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

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

At times inactivity is preferable to mindless functioning. — Jenny Holzer

Usually going places makes me feel optimistic. And I'm a hillbilly, so heading to the countryside made sense a number of ways. — Jenny Holzer

WITH BLEEDING INSIDE THE HEAD
THERE IS A METALLIC TASTE AT
THE BACK OF THE THROAT. — Jenny Holzer

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

Abuse of power comes as no surprise — Jenny Holzer

Being happy is more important than anything else. — Jenny Holzer

A name means a lot just by itself. — Jenny Holzer

An elite is inevitable. — Jenny Holzer

At times your unconsciousness is truer than your conscious mind — Jenny Holzer

Turn soft and lovely anytime you have the chance. — Jenny Holzer

Enjoy yourself because you can't change anything anyway. — Jenny Holzer

With you inside me comes the knowledge of my death. — Jenny Holzer

If you have many desires your life will be interesting. — Jenny Holzer

Raise boys and girls the same way. — Jenny Holzer

If you are an artist and you are honest, you are never good enough. — Jenny Holzer

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. — Jenny Holzer