Gaza is often described as ‘the world’s largest open air prison’ because no-one is allowed to enter or leave. But that seems a bit unfair to prisons – they don’t have their electricity and drinking water cut off randomly almost every day.
BANKSYBut there’s no way round it-commercial success is a mark of failure for a graffiti artist. We’re not supposed to be embraced in that way. When you look at how society rewards so many of the wrong people, it’s hard not to view financial reimbursement as a badge of self-serving mediocrity.
More Banksy Quotes
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I need someone to protect me from all the measures they take in order to protect me.
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People are fond of using military terms to describe what they do. We call it bombing when we go out painting, when of course it’s more like entertaining the troops in a neutral zone, during peacetime in a country without an army.
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The bad artists imitate, the great artists steal.
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The grumpier you are, the more assholes you meet.
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A lot of mothers will do anything for their children, except let them be themselves.
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If Michaelangelo or Leonardo Da Vinci were alive today they’d be making Avatar, not painting a chapel.
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I like to think I have the guts to stand up anonymously in a western democracy and call for things no-one else believes in – like peace and justice and freedom.
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If you feel dirty, insignificant or unloved, then rats are a good role model. They exist without permission, they have no respect for the hierarchy of society, and they have sex 50 times a day.
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T.V. has made going to the theatre seem pointless, photography has pretty much killed painting but graffiti has remained gloriously unspoilt by progress.
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In the future, everybody will be anonymous for 15 minutes.
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All artists are willing to suffer for their work. But why are so few prepared to learn to draw?
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I’ve learnt from experience that a painting isn’t finished when you put down your brush – that’s when it starts. The public reaction is what supplies meaning and value. Art comes alive in the arguments you have about it.
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Today’s art has been cancelled due to police activity.
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Nobody ever listened to me until they didn’t know who I was
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I tell myself I use art to promote dissent, but maybe I am just using dissent to promote my art. I plead not guilty to selling out. But I plead it from a bigger house than I used to live in.
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