---
title: "1 Representations Quotes By Peggy Phelan"
description: "1 Representations quotes by Peggy Phelan. Plus more from Peggy Phelan and more Representations sayings from other authors."
image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/886/peggy-phelan-63169_circulation_performance-s-only-life-is-in-the-presen_546428.jpg"
---

> [Performance's only life is in the present. Performance cannot be saved, recorded, documented, or otherwise participate in the circulation of representations of representations: once it does so, it becomes something other than performance.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/peggy-phelan/performance-s-only-life-is-in-the-present-performance-cannot-be-saved/)

[Peggy Phelan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/peggy-phelan/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/886/peggy-phelan-63169_circulation_performance-s-only-life-is-in-the-presen_546428.jpg)

## More by Peggy Phelan

> [Patronizing the Arts is a brilliantly nuanced assessment of why universities must become art patrons. Learning from the twentieth-century university's embrace of Big Science,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/peggy-phelan/patronizing-the-arts-is-a-brilliantly-nuanced-assessment-of-why/)

[Peggy Phelan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/peggy-phelan/)

> [Performance's only life is in the present. Performance cannot be saved, recorded, documented, or otherwise participate in the circulation of representations of representations: once…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/peggy-phelan/performance-s-only-life-is-in-the-present-performance-cannot-be-saved/)

[Peggy Phelan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/peggy-phelan/)

> [“If representational visibility equals power, then almost-naked young white women should be running Western culture.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/peggy-phelan/if-representational-visibility-equals-power-then-almost-naked-young/)

[Peggy Phelan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/peggy-phelan/)

> [“Life, like the trance we call Love, might begin with a look, a glance, an exchange between eyes”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/peggy-phelan/life-like-the-trance-we-call-love-might-begin-with-a-look-a-glance-an/)

[Peggy Phelan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/peggy-phelan/)

> [Performance's being...becomes itself through disappearance.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/peggy-phelan/performance-s-being-becomes-itself-through-disappearance/)

[Peggy Phelan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/peggy-phelan/)

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