Creativity Quote by Laurie Anderson

Anderson sneaks a whole philosophy of seeing into the guise of a shrug. Calling herself "average enough" isn’t false modesty so much as a deliberate reframe: the authority to name something "awe-inspiring" doesn’t come from genius, elitism, or access to some rarified aesthetic sensorium. It comes from attention. In a culture that treats wonder like a luxury good (curated by algorithms, validated by credentials, priced by exclusivity), she plants awe back in the hands of the supposedly ordinary.

The phrasing matters. "Point to" is stage direction, not confession. Anderson is an artist who has always worked like a docent of the uncanny, guiding audiences toward the strange in the everyday: a story, a sound, a glitch in the system. She’s not claiming to be the awe; she’s claiming to be a witness, a pointer, someone who can say, look there. That gesture also hints at her performance practice, where narrative and technology become tools for directing perception.

There’s subtext here about the politics of experience. "The things I've gotten to see" acknowledges contingency: travel, proximity, luck, privilege, timing. Awe isn’t purely internal; it’s shaped by where you’re allowed to go and what you’re allowed to notice. By insisting on her averageness, she resists the cult of the singular visionary while still defending the artist’s job: not to manufacture meaning, but to make a case for wonder in plain sight.