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Think outside the box, collapse the box, and take a f**king sharp knife to it.

Banksy

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.
BANKSY

Citiy Name School
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.
BANKSY

Art Graffiti People
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

Looks People White
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

Believe Justice Thinking
Not everyone will understand your journey. That’s okay. You’re here to live your life, not to make everyone understand.
BANKSY

Journey Live Your Life Okay
The bad artists imitate, the great artists steal.
BANKSY

Art Artist Great Stealing
I 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.
BANKSY

Art Book Mean
One Original Thought is worth 1000 Meaningless Quotes.
BANKSY

Meaningless Original Quote Thought
Stencils are good for two reasons; one – they’re quick; two – they annoy idiots.
BANKSY

Annoying Idiot Two
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

Artist Self Views
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.
BANKSY

Air Cutting Drinking
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.
BANKSY

Car New Orleans Two
Graffiti is only dangerous in the mind of three types of people; politicians, advertising executives and graffiti writers.
BANKSY

Graffiti Mind People
Fight the fighters, not their wars.
BANKSY

Fighter Fighting War
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.
BANKSY

Art Order People
A wall is a very big weapon. It’s one of the nastiest things you can hit someone with.
BANKSY

Art Graffiti Wall
Think outside the box, collapse the box, and take a f**king sharp knife to it.
BANKSY

Inspirational Inspiring Life
A lot of people never use their initiative because no-one told them to.
BANKSY

Independent People Use
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

Art Guilty House
The holy grail is to spend less time making the picture than it takes people to look at it.
BANKSY

Art Holy Grail People
You owe the companies nothing. You especially don’t owe them any courtesy. They have re-arranged the world to put themselves in front of you. They never asked for your permission, don’t even start asking for theirs.
BANKSY

Asking Business World
I love the way capitalism finds a place – even for its enemies.
BANKSY

Capitalism Enemy Way
In the future, everybody will be anonymous for 15 minutes.
BANKSY

Anonymous Everybody Future Minute
Nobody knows what you feel inside unless you tell them.
BANKSY

Feels Knows Nobody
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.
BANKSY

Air Cutting Drinking
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.
BANKSY

Climbing Drunk Skills
Writing graffiti is about the most honest way you can be an artist. It takes no money to do it, you don’t need an education to understand it, and there’s no admission fee.
BANKSY

Artist Graffiti Writing

Think outside the box, collapse the box, and take a f**king sharp knife to 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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