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.
BANKSYI used to encourage everyone I knew to make art; I don’t do that so much anymore.
More Banksy Quotes
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Become good at cheating and you never need to become good at anything else.
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Nobody knows what you feel inside unless you tell them.
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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.
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Graffiti is only dangerous in the mind of three types of people; politicians, advertising executives and graffiti writers.
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I love the way capitalism finds a place – even for its enemies.
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It’s a very frustrated feeling you get when the only people with good photos of you work are the police department.
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Some people become cops because they want to make the world a better place. Some people become vandals because they want to make the world a better looking place.
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Fight the fighters, not their wars.
BANKSY -
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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In the future, everybody will be anonymous for 15 minutes.
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We don’t need any more heroes; we just need someone to take out the recycling.
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 -
It’s impossible to predict which paintings will last and which won’t. In New Orleans I painted on a dilapidated shop in a street littered with abandoned cars and rotting mattresses, then two hours later the piece was gone. It turned out I’d picked the side of a crack house and the proprietor didn’t like the attention.
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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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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.
BANKSY