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.
BANKSYKeep your coins, I want change.
More Banksy Quotes
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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’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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I need someone to protect me from all the measures they take in order to protect me.
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Keep your coins, I want change.
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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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If you want to say something and have people listen then you have to wear a mask. If you want to be honest then you have to live a lie.
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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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I love the way capitalism finds a place – even for its enemies.
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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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The bad artists imitate, the great artists steal.
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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.
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Is graffiti art or vandalism? That word has a lot of negative connotations and it alienates people, so no, I don’t like to use the word ‘art’ at all.
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Speak softly, but carry a big can of paint.
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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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You can win the rat race but you’re still a rat.
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If you want someone to be ignored then build a life-size bronze statue of them and stick it in the middle of town. It doesn’t matter how great you were, it’ll always take an unfunny drunk with climbing skills to make people notice you.
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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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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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Stencils are good for two reasons; one – they’re quick; two – they annoy idiots.
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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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We don’t need any more heroes; we just need someone to take out the recycling.
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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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People seem to think if they dress like a revolutionary they don`t actually have to behave like one.
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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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Art should comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable.
BANKSY