It is an artist’s duty to be on the wrong end of the see-saw.
BILLY CHILDISHI loved moustaches. I used to draw myself with one. When I was 14, I was really into war and Van Gogh.
More Billy Childish Quotes
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I gave up drinking lots of whiskey and began to practice yoga and meditation. As a result I am not dead.
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I think that the mythology of Van Gogh’s life, and the beauty of his paintings, is unstoppable.
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Bowie and McCartney arrived, and the biscuits and caviare started and I left immediately. I don’t like shouting across rooms, with people in shiny suits who look like used-car salesmen.
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My favourite things are jokes, friendliness and feeling comfortable.
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I did not like prizes at school. I didn’t like tests or exams, or the 11+, or O-levels. Later I hated B.A.s and M.A.s. The reason I hated them is that I don’t like being tested, failed or falsely praised by anyone.
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We believe in a society in delusion, and if you’re awake and not deluded people tell you you’re mad. That’s why I’m a freak and they’re not. But I’m actually not.
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Before 1999, Tracey Emin and Sarah Lucas offered to get me exhibitions, but joining the Stuckists put a kaibosh on all that – because I wasn’t prepared to be controlled.
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I loved moustaches. I used to draw myself with one. When I was 14, I was really into war and Van Gogh.
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I agreed to co-found the Stuckists to be allowed to say what I wanted, and I left the Stuckists because I didn’t really want to be in them in the first place.
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I like being on the margins. You work better there.
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I don’t spend a lot of time working if I can help it.
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When I was better known than her, she put my name in that tent. I was asked to do Celebrity Big Brother, but why should I? We live in an age where fame is not related to what you do.
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I’m going to get a pair of wire-snips, and I’ve also started a new campaign to have blank CDs on jukeboxes so you can play the silence.
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The most challenging work I’ve seen of late is by The British Art Resistance. Their document, ‘A Call for Heroes in an Age of Cowards’, is apt in these days of witless chancers.
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Being a fan of authentic Dada, I find today’s art – what I call ‘Bankers’ Dada’ – mind-numbingly dull.
BILLY CHILDISH