"I'm a real workaholic"
About this Quote
"I'm a real workaholic" lands less like a confession than a performance cue coming from Laurie Anderson, an artist who built a career out of turning personal statements into slippery, public artifacts. In pop culture, calling yourself a workaholic can be a humblebrag, a shield against vulnerability, a way to translate anxiety into productivity. From Anderson, it also reads as a sly thesis about authorship: the self as an ongoing project, always in revision, always under construction.
The intent feels double-edged. On the surface, it signals discipline and stamina - the kind of relentless making that lets an avant-garde musician survive in a marketplace that prefers neat categories. Underneath, it hints at compulsion: work not just as ambition, but as a coping mechanism, a way to outrun stillness. Anderson's art often plays with mediated intimacy - the voice processed, the story half-true, the narrator both present and distanced. "Workaholic" becomes one more filter: an identity label that explains everything and explains nothing.
Context matters because Anderson's public image is inseparable from labor: performance art, technology, composition, writing, speaking. She operates like a one-person studio system, and the line nods to the reality that making the work is also making the persona. The phrase is blunt, even ordinary, which is part of its effectiveness: it sounds like something anyone might say, then you realize "work" here includes turning that very banality into material. In her hands, the cliché becomes a tell - not of sincerity alone, but of method.
The intent feels double-edged. On the surface, it signals discipline and stamina - the kind of relentless making that lets an avant-garde musician survive in a marketplace that prefers neat categories. Underneath, it hints at compulsion: work not just as ambition, but as a coping mechanism, a way to outrun stillness. Anderson's art often plays with mediated intimacy - the voice processed, the story half-true, the narrator both present and distanced. "Workaholic" becomes one more filter: an identity label that explains everything and explains nothing.
Context matters because Anderson's public image is inseparable from labor: performance art, technology, composition, writing, speaking. She operates like a one-person studio system, and the line nods to the reality that making the work is also making the persona. The phrase is blunt, even ordinary, which is part of its effectiveness: it sounds like something anyone might say, then you realize "work" here includes turning that very banality into material. In her hands, the cliché becomes a tell - not of sincerity alone, but of method.
Quote Details
| Topic | Work Ethic |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Anderson, Laurie. (2026, January 17). I'm a real workaholic. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/im-a-real-workaholic-56144/
Chicago Style
Anderson, Laurie. "I'm a real workaholic." FixQuotes. January 17, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/im-a-real-workaholic-56144/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"I'm a real workaholic." FixQuotes, 17 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/im-a-real-workaholic-56144/. Accessed 12 Feb. 2026.
More Quotes by Laurie
Add to List

