We, performers, work on willpower. This willpower works in a short term, not durational.

Most people are more comfortable with what is familiar. I’ve spent my life doing the opposite.

I always do big birthday things. In three years, I'm 70. I'm going to do something outrageous. In America, everyone's always hiding their age.

I just want to create situations where people forget time.

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.

Even now, I have traces of the good little girl. When I am not performing, for instance, I am really very quiet and ordinary.

One thing I learned from his holiness the Dali Lama is the importance of humor.