Nobody ever listened to me until they didn’t know who I was
BANKSYI’d been painting rats for three years before someone said ‘that’s clever it’s an anagram of art’ and I had to pretend I’d known that all along.
More Banksy Quotes
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You can win the rat race but you’re still a rat.
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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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Nobody knows what you feel inside unless you tell them.
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If you don’t own a train company then you go and paint on one instead… it all comes from that thing at school when you had to have name tags in the back of something… that makes it belong to you. You can own half the city by scribbling your name over it.
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Think outside the box, collapse the box, and take a f**king sharp knife to it.
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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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The greatest crimes in the world are not committed by people breaking the rules but by people following the rules. It’s people who follow orders that drop bombs and massacre villages.
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I wanted to highlight the destruction in Gaza by posting photos on my website – but on the internet, people only look at pictures of kittens.
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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.
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People seem to think if they dress like a revolutionary they don`t actually have to behave like one.
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The Art we look at is made by only a select few. A small group create, promote, purchase, exhibit and decide the success of Art. Only a few hundred people in the world have any real say. When you go to an Art gallery you are simply a tourist looking at the trophy cabinet of a few millionaires
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I’d been painting rats for three years before someone said ‘that’s clever it’s an anagram of art’ and I had to pretend I’d known that all along.
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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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I mean, they say you die twice. One time when you stop breathing and a second time, a bit later on, when somebody says your name for the last time.
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There are four basic human needs; food, sleep, sex and revenge.
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I love the way capitalism finds a place – even for its enemies.
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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.
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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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Nothing in the world is more common than unsuccessful people with talent, leave the house before you find something worth staying in for.
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A recent survey or North American males found 42% were overweight, 34% were critically obese and 8% ate the survey.
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I have a theory that you can make any sentence seem profound by writing the name of a dead philosopher at the end of it.
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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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The bad artists imitate, the great artists steal.
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Not everyone will understand your journey. That’s okay. You’re here to live your life, not to make everyone understand.
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I’ve never really understood why people sleep. Wasting a third of your life and becoming vulnerable for almost 8 hours every night. Doesn’t seem very appealing to me.
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My lawyer’s opinion is that the cops might not actually be able to charge me with criminal damage any more – because theoretically my graffiti actually increases the value of property rather than decreasing it. That’s his theory, but then my lawyer also believes wearing novelty cartoon ties is a good look.
BANKSY