Damien Hirst Quotes
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I remember when you used to have your profession on your passport and I always thought that being a painter was the best one to be, because my heroes were Goya and Francis Bacon.
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In an artwork you're always looking for artistic decisions, so an ashtray is perfect. An ashtray has got life and death.
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Kids are naturally gifted at art from a very young age. The problem is when they get older and become self-conscious. The process should always be fun, though.
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A lot of people thought I wasn't doing anything because I was spending a lot of time socialising and going out, but I've always managed to get work actually done.
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I always look at money not as a motivating factor but as an element in the composition. You can't ignore it, but you've got to be very careful that it's not motivating you.
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When I used to do abstract paintings at school, like everyone else, the tutor said these would make great curtains. I would always neglect the formal stuff that was going on by using colour, because colour kind of came naturally to me.
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You need a big ego to be an artist.
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I gave up painting by 16. I secretly thought I would have been Rembrandt by then.
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Museums are for dead artists. I'd never show my work in the Tate. You'd never get me in that place.
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Since I was a child, death is definitely something that I think about every day. But I think that everybody does. You try and avoid it, but it's such a big thing that you can't.
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I think I've always been afraid of painting, really. Right from the beginning. All my paintings are about painting without a painter. Like a kind of mechanical form of painting.
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But whenever I look at the question of how to live, the answer's always staring me in the face. I'm already doing it.
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I have always been aware that you have to get people listening before you can change their minds. Any artist's big fear is being ignored, so if you get debate, that's great.
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You'd never look at a Rembrandt and say, 'That's just wood and canvas and paint - how much?!' It's all about how many people want it. It works on a pair of jeans as well - they're just material and stitching, and as soon as you walk out of the shop, they're worth nothing.
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I've spent a long time avoiding painting and dealing with it from a distance. But as I get older, I'm more comfortable with it.
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There was a point I could have just churned out the spot and spin paintings for ever and laughed all the way to the bank.
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For me, art is always a kind of theater.
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It's amazing what you can do with an E in A-Level art, a twisted imagination and a chainsaw.
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I think I like big issues, but I don't believe in God or religion.
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I was brought up Catholic, and I felt the power of art from a very young age - seeing the brutality of all those images of flayed apostles and tortured saints was a pretty strong introduction.
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People always say that my work is sensational or shocking but there are truly shocking things you could do, and my sculptures don't go anywhere near that.
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That's the great thing about art. Anybody can do it if you just believe. With practice, you can make great paintings.
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Artists are like everybody else.
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Painting is so poetic, while sculpture is more logical and scientific and makes you worry about gravity.