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.
BILLY CHILDISHI 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.
BILLY CHILDISHBowie 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.
BILLY CHILDISHI’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.
BILLY CHILDISHI think that the mythology of Van Gogh’s life, and the beauty of his paintings, is unstoppable.
BILLY CHILDISHI liked drawing and painting, because the only failure would be to listen to the doubters who wanted me to stop drawing and painting because ‘you aren’t going to make a living doing that.’ I liked looking in art books at the work of painters.
BILLY CHILDISHFailure is fantastic, because you meet yourself and get to know your limitations. This is how I express myself, and I can’t do it any other way.
BILLY CHILDISHMy favourite things are jokes, friendliness and feeling comfortable.
BILLY CHILDISHBeing a fan of authentic Dada, I find today’s art – what I call ‘Bankers’ Dada’ – mind-numbingly dull.
BILLY CHILDISHWhen 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.
BILLY CHILDISHI’ve not been an admirer of contemporary music since punk rock went off the boil in 1977, but once a year I’ll listen to ‘Spiral Scratch’ by the Buzzcocks, or ‘Hippy Hippy Shake’ by the Swinging Blue Jeans. Otherwise, I can put up with Chopin or shakuhachi flute in the background.
BILLY CHILDISHI like being on the margins. You work better there.
BILLY CHILDISHI gave up drinking lots of whiskey and began to practice yoga and meditation. As a result I am not dead.
BILLY CHILDISHIt is an artist’s duty to be on the wrong end of the see-saw.
BILLY CHILDISHThe 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.
BILLY CHILDISHI 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.
BILLY CHILDISHWe are not actually in charge of life, yet we behave as if we are the masters of our own destiny. The realization of this fact is quite a hard one. The ridiculousness of our pomposity and presumption can only result in anger or humor.
BILLY CHILDISH