Should # graffiti be judged on the same level as modern art? Of course not: It’s way more important than that
BANKSYIf Michaelangelo or Leonardo Da Vinci were alive today they’d be making Avatar, not painting a chapel.
More Banksy Quotes
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Think outside the box, collapse the box, and take a f**king sharp knife to it.
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People say graffiti is ugly, irresponsible and childish… but that’s only if it’s done properly.
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Sometimes I feel so sick at the state of the world I can’t even finish my second apple pie.
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The grumpier you are, the more assholes you meet.
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The one thing you can rely on is if you get disturbed halfway through a painting and it looks a bit naff, then someone will preserve that piece, remove it and a few months later it’ll be paraded round Sotheby’s by people wearing white gloves.
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I don’t know if street art ever really works indoors. If you domesticate an animal, it goes from being wild and free to sterile, fat and sleepy. So maybe the art should stay outside.
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Fight the fighters, not their wars.
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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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There are four basic human needs; food, sleep, sex and revenge.
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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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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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Keep your coins, I want change.
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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.
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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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Today’s art has been cancelled due to police activity.
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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.
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All graffiti is low-level dissent, but stencils have an extra history. They’ve been used to start revolutions and to stop wars
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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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Graffiti is one of the few tools you have if you have almost nothing. And even if you don’t come up with a picture to cure world poverty you can make someone smile while they’re having a piss.
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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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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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All artists are willing to suffer for their work. But why are so few prepared to learn to draw?
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Some people represent authority without ever possessing any of their own.
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I originally set out to try and save the world, but now I’m not sure I like it enough.
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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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The one thing you can rely on is if you get disturbed halfway through a painting and it looks a bit naff, then someone will preserve that piece, remove it and a few months later it’ll be paraded round Sotheby’s by people wearing white gloves.
BANKSY