While in London this week, Marina Abramovic spoke to students at the Royal Academy Schools yesterday. They received many pearls of wisdom from the Honorary Academician, such as how she “would make art even if I didn't make any money. It’s like breathing. You do it, you don't question it.” The artist also warned: “I never give up on anything. If you say no to me, it is only the beginning.” Charles Saumarez Smith, the RA’s secretary and chief executive, blogged the day after that he was left with the strongest possible impression that she is something of a high priest of performance art, “of a cult devoted to silence and contemplation”. Her combination of iron will, work ethic and faith runs in the family. Abramovic started the evening showing pictures of her great uncle, a patriarch of the Orthodox Church, her father who was a devoted Communist and her mother who was director of the Museum of the Revolution and Art in Belgrade.