Banksy Quotes
- All Quotes
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'There's no way you're going to get a quote from us to use on your book cover.' - Metropolitan Police Spokesperson
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'Art is not like other culture because its success is not made by its audience. The public fill concert halls and cinemas every day, we read novels by the millions, and buy records by the billions. 'We the people' affect the making and quality of most of our culture, but not our art.'
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'I sucked a lot of liberal cocks to get where I am today.'
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I started painting graffiti in the classic New York style of big letters and characters but I was never very good at it.
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'Nobody ever listened to me until they didn't know who I was.'
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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.
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'We don’t need any more heroes; we just need someone to take out the recycling.'
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All graffiti is low-level dissent, but stencils have an extra history. They've been used to start revolutions and to stop wars.
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'Sometimes I feel so sick at the state of the world I can’t even finish my second apple pie.'
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'Try to avoid painting in places where they still point at aeroplanes.'
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'Conversations don't get any better as you get older.'
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'I used to tell everyone I meant to be an artist..... I don't do that any more.'
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I have a theory that you can make any sentence seem profound by writing the name of a dead philosopher at the end of it.
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The time of getting fame for your name on its own is over. Artwork that is only about wanting to be famous will never make you famous. Any fame is a by-product of making something that means something. You don't go to a restaurant and order a meal because you want to have a sh*t.
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Graffiti is only dangerous in the mind of three types of people; politicians, advertising executives and graffiti writers.
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I wanted to highlight the destruction in Gaza by posting photos on my website - but on the internet, people only look at pictures of kittens.
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'If you want someone to be ignored, then build a life-size bronze statue of them and stick it in the middle of town...'
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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.
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I am unable to comment on who may or may not be Banksy, but anyone described as 'good at drawing' doesn't sound like Banksy to me.
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'You can win the rat race but you're still a rat.'
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Traditional graffiti writers have a bunch of rules they like to stick to, and good luck to them, but I didn't become a graffiti artist so I could have somebody else tell me what to do. If you're the type who gets sentimental about people scribbling over your stuff, I suggest graffiti is probably not the right hobby for you.
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Some people criticize me for using sources that are a bit low brow (this quote is from 'Gladiator') but you know what? 'I'm just going to use that hostility to make me stronger, not weaker' as Kelly Rowland said on the X Factor.
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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.
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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.