Marina Abramović: What advice would you give your twenty-year-old self, and what should they…

The question

What advice would you give your twenty-year-old self, and what should they ignore?

Performance artist

Recorded said elsewhere, not written here

Spend your time on something meaningful. Not on parties, and not on taking it easy. That’s not good enough. […] When you’re young, you think: Let’s party, do drugs, drink, waste it all, right? But as you get older, you look at what you’ve accomplished. And when you get old, you’ve run out of time. You have to ask yourself: Why am I here? Can I contribute anything to humanity, to society, my work?

University Post, University of Copenhagen public talk, University Post (uniavisen.dk), University of Copenhagen source ↗

Others on this question

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J.K. Rowling Novelist and screenwriter

So given a Time Turner, I would tell my 21-year-old self that personal happiness lies in knowing that life is not a check-list of acquisition or achievement. Your qualifications, your CV, are not your life, though you will meet many people of my age and older who confuse the two. Life is difficult, and complicated, and beyond anyone’s total control, and the humility to know that will enable you to survive its vicissitudes.

Recorded Harvard University Commencement, 2008, Harvard Gazette, 5 June 2008 source ↗

Alison Goldfrapp English musician and record producer

I would definitely take myself aside and say, “Come on, don't be so hard on yourself.” I’m still very hard on myself now. I’m my worst critic.

Recorded Nick Levine, 50 Questions, AnOther, 10 May 2023 source ↗

Ory Okolloh Co-founder of Ushahidi; lawyer and open-government activist

I wish I had known how to “manage up.” I wish I had not believed that my work would speak for itself; the working world requires a bit more than that.

Recorded Quartz written questionnaire source ↗

Eliud Kipchoge Kenyan marathon runner