Graffiti Artist Quotes:

I want to make the world a better place, for women, mainly.

- Clare Balding

source: "Clare Balding: 'I want to make the world better, for women mainly'". Interview with Kira Cochrane, www.theguardian.com. January 11, 2013.

topic: World, Want, Social Entrepreneurship, Famine, Street Art

Modern art is a disaster area. Never in the field of human history has so much been used by so many to say so little.

- Banksy

topic: Art, Littles, Fields, Street Art, Modern Art

Some people become cops because they want to make the world a better place. Some people become vandals because they want to make the world a better looking place.

- Banksy

topic: Art, People, Graffiti, Vandalism, Street Art

The greatest crimes in the world are not committed by people breaking the rules but by people following the rules. It's people who follow orders that drop bombs and massacre villages.

- Banksy

source: Banksy (2005). “Banksy: wall and piece”, Random House UK

topic: Art, Order, People, Massacres, Street Art

Graffiti is one of the few tools you have if you have almost nothing.

- Banksy

source: "Objectified" by Joe Winkler, www.guernicamag.com. October 22, 2013.

topic: Graffiti, Tools, Street Art, Wall And Piece, Banging Your Head

The thing I hate the most about advertising is that it attracts all the bright, creative and ambitious young people, leaving us mainly with the slow and self-obsessed to become our artists.. Modern art is a disaster area. Never in the field of human history has so much been used by so many to say so little.

- Banksy

topic: Art, Hate, Creativity, Street Art, Wall And Piece

People say graffiti is ugly, irresponsible and childish... but that's only if it's done properly.

- Banksy

source: "Wall and Piece". Book by Banksy, 2005.

topic: People, Graffiti, Done, Street Art, Wall And Piece

You're mind is working at its best when you're being paranoid. You explore every avenue and possibility of your situation at high speed with total clarity.

- Banksy

topic: Art, Creativity, Mind, Street Art, Wall And Piece

Become good at cheating and you never need to become good at anything else.

- Banksy

topic: Cheating, Art, Graffiti, Street Art, Wall And Piece

Imagine a city where graffiti wasn't illegal, a city where everybody could draw whatever they liked. Where every street was awash with a million colours and little phrases. Where standing at a bus stop was never boring. A city that felt like a party where everyone was invited, not just the estate agents and barons of big business. Imagine a city like that and stop leaning against the wall - it's wet.

- Banksy

topic: Wall, Party, Cities, Street Art, Wall And Piece

Nothing in the world is more common than unsuccessful people with talent, leave the house before you find something worth staying in for.

- Banksy

topic: Art, People, House, Street Art, Wall And Piece

I mean, they say you die twice. One time when you stop breathing and a second time, a bit later on, when somebody says your name for the last time.

- Banksy

topic: Mean, Breathing, Names, Street Art, Wall And Piece

I'd been painting rats for three years before someone said 'that's clever it's an anagram of art' and I had to pretend I'd known that all along.

- Banksy

source: Banksy (2005). “Banksy: wall and piece”, Random House UK

topic: Art, Clever, Years, Street Art, Wall And Piece

Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not: nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent.

- Calvin Coolidge

source: Quoted in Quotable Calvin Coolidge, ed. Peter Hannaford (2001).

topic: Persistence, Men, World, Unsuccessful, Solved Problems

A lot of mothers will do anything for their children, except let them be themselves.

- Banksy

topic: Mother, Children, Parenting, Street Art, Wall And Piece

It's a very frustrated feeling you get when the only people with good photos of you work are the police department.

- Banksy

topic: People, Police, Feelings, Street Art, Wall And Piece

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.

- Banksy

source: Banksy (2005). “Banksy: wall and piece”, Random House UK

topic: Art, Other Cultures, People, Wall And Piece, Graffiti Art

If you want to say something and have people listen then you have to wear a mask. If you want to be honest then you have to live a lie.

- Banksy

topic: Art, Lying, People, Street Art, Wall And Piece

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.

- Banksy

topic: Artist, Self, Views, Reimbursement, Graffiti Artist

Obviously my own work comes from a conceptual art tradition, but I love the graffiti artists, and I feel spiritually closer to them than to most contemporary art; they make the city a free space of diverse voices and we shouldn't get all cynical about them just because Banksy made some money. I collaborate sometimes with Krae, who is an old school east London graffiti writer.

- Robert Montgomery

source: Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

topic: Art, School, East London, Conceptual Art, Graffiti Artist

Violence has been a necessary component of every serious liberation struggle...Violence is not the only path to liberation, but likely an indispensable one...the Press Office would like to be clear on this matter: we support all the liberationists ­ from the graffiti artists and ALF liberator to the Animal Rights Militia, Justice Department and Revolutionary Cells.

- Jerry Vlasak

topic: Struggle, Artist, Animal, Liberators, Graffiti Artist

Bursts of gold on lavender melting into saffron. It's the time of day when the sky looks like it has been spray-painted by a graffiti artist.

- Mia Kirshner

topic: Sunset, Artist, Sky, Lavender, Graffiti Artist

I started off as a graffiti artist in the South Bronx. My tag name was 'Loco' because I would go crazy and tag anywhere I wanted, in the weirdest places.

- Swizz Beatz

topic: Crazy, Artist, Names, Bronx, Graffiti Artist

Law breaking, graffiti artist, dumb jock that I am, I'm pretty socially conscious.

- Duff Goldman

source: "Duff Goldman: The Ace of Cakes On A Sugar High" by Regina Varolli, www.huffingtonpost.com. September 15, 2011.

topic: Artist, Law, Dumb, Law Breaking, Graffiti Artist

Hip-hop is a competition culture. It's based around, "My DJ is better than you. My graffiti artist is better than you."

- Ice T

source: Source: collider.com

topic: Artist, Hip Hop, Competition, Graffiti Artist

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.

- Banksy

source: Source: www.timeout.com

topic: Good Luck, Artist, People, Graffiti Artist

My graffiti really comes more from a May '68, sort of Situationist vibe than the hip-hop world. I think a real graffiti artist would find me a poser.

- Mike Mills

topic: Real, Thinking, Artist, Posers, Graffiti Artist