James Turrell Quotes

[L]et my reader who is puzzled by my awkward explanations close his eyes for no more than two minutes, and see if he does not find himself suddenly not a compact human being at all, but only a consciousness on a sea of sound and touch . . .

Everything can be seen directly except the eye through which we see.

We have been so blinded by thinking and feeling that we have never seen the World.

I open my eyes and my ears, and that’s why I work.

It is clear that every immediate object of our senses both exists and is real in the primary meaning of these terms so long as we remain aware of the object.

I acknowledge the privilege of being alive in a human body at this moment, endowed with senses, memories, emotions, thoughts, and the space of mind in its wisdom aspect.

To be conscious means not simply to be, but to be reported, known, to have awareness of one's being added to that being.

How do you know, right now, that you are aware of being aware, or conscious?

We are all instruments endowed with feeling and memory. Our senses are so many strings that are struck by surrounding objects and that also frequently strike themselves.

Live with all of your senses.

Light comes to us by the sensibility. Without visual sensibility there is no light, no movement.

Sensation is amphibious: at the same time it joins us to and divides us from things. It is the door through which we enter into things but also through which we come out of them and realize that we are not things.

Looking up and out, how can we not respect this ever-vigilant cognizance that distinguishes us: the capability to envision, to dream, and to invent? the ability to ponder ourselves? and be aware of our existence on the outer arm of a spiral galaxy in an immeasurable ocean of stars? Cognizance is our crest.

When I see a colour or hear a sound, I am aware of something, and not of nothing.

One must always be aware, to notice even though the cost of noticing is to become responsible.

The greatest gift is our own eyes, sense of smell, and abilities to deduce.

What is necessary to change a person is to change his awareness of himself.

The forms of my awareness are richer than yours.

How pathetically scanty my self-knowledge is compared with, say, my knowledge of my room. There is no such thing as observation of the inner world, as there is of the outer world.

I see myself as a normal guy - until I see myself in photos; then, 'Oh, I'm tall.'

Meditation will sharpen your senses and your awareness.

I don't want you looking at the light fixture; I want you looking at where light goes. But more than that, I'm interested in the effect of light upon you and your perceptions.

We are astonished at thought, but sensation is equally wonderful.

Consciousness is the perception of what passes in man's own mind.

There was a young man who said though, it seems that I know that I know, but what I would like to see is the I that knows me when I know that I know that I know.