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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.

Billy Childish

I’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 CHILDISH

Blue Hippy Punk Rocks Since Years
Being a fan of authentic Dada, I find today’s art – what I call ‘Bankers’ Dada’ – mind-numbingly dull.
BILLY CHILDISH

Art Challenging Hero Work
I 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 CHILDISH

Art Book Drawing
I loved moustaches. I used to draw myself with one. When I was 14, I was really into war and Van Gogh.
BILLY CHILDISH

Moustache Used War
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.
BILLY CHILDISH

Challenging Heroes Late Resistance Schnauzers Seen Witness
Failure 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 CHILDISH

Fantastic Knows Way
We had the same kind of unemployment here as they had in the worst hit places in the North and you’re meant to be on a cushy wicket in the South.
BILLY CHILDISH

Squares Towns Unemployment
I like being on the margins. You work better there.
BILLY CHILDISH

Better Margins Work
I think that the mythology of Van Gogh’s life, and the beauty of his paintings, is unstoppable.
BILLY CHILDISH

Painting Thinking Unstoppable
One of my biggest problems in life has been my inability to lie.
BILLY CHILDISH

Inability Lying Problem
I gave up drinking lots of whiskey and began to practice yoga and meditation. As a result I am not dead.
BILLY CHILDISH

Drinking Health Yoga
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.
BILLY CHILDISH

Levels Reason School Tests
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.
BILLY CHILDISH

Exhibition Joining Want
I’ve dubbed myself as an amateur, not because I work in different field, but because I do what I do for love.
BILLY CHILDISH

Amateur Different Fields Love
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.
BILLY CHILDISH

Believe Mad People
It is an artist’s duty to be on the wrong end of the see-saw.
BILLY CHILDISH

Artist Ends Saws

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 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.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

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