All artists are willing to suffer for their work. But why are so few prepared to learn to draw?
BANKSYI know street art can feel increasingly like the marketing wing of an art career, so I wanted to make some art without the price tag attached. There’s no gallery show or book or film. It’s pointless. Which hopefully means something.
More Banksy Quotes
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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.
BANKSY -
Film is incredibly democratic and accessible, it’s probably the best option if you actually want to change the world, not just re-decorate it.
BANKSY -
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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I need someone to protect me from all the measures they take in order to protect me.
BANKSY -
But 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.
BANKSY -
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.
BANKSY -
Although you might have to creep about at night and lie to your mum it’s actually one of the more honest art forms available. There is no elitism or hype, it exhibits on the best walls a town has to offer and nobody is put off by the price of admission.
BANKSY -
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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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 love the way capitalism finds a place – even for its enemies.
BANKSY -
When he time comes to leave, just walk away quietly and don’t make any fuss.
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I don’t think you should have to pay to look at graffiti. You should only pay if you want to get rid of it.
BANKSY -
The bad artists imitate, the great artists steal.
BANKSY -
Sometimes I feel so sick at the state of the world I can’t even finish my second apple pie.
BANKSY -
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.
BANKSY