Not everyone will understand your journey. That's okay. You're here to live your life, not to make everyone understand.
BanksyPeople seem to think if they dress like a revolutionary they don`t actually have to behave like one.
BanksyTraditional 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.
BanksyI 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.
BanksyBrandalism Any advertisement in public space that gives you no choice whether you see it or not is yours. It belongs to you. It's yours to take, rearrange and re-use. Asking for permission is like asking to keep a rock someone just threw at your head.
BanksyFilm is incredibly democratic and accessible, it's probably the best option if you actually want to change the world, not just re-decorate it.
BanksyI don't know if street art ever really works indoors. If you domesticate an animal, it goes from being wild and free to sterile, fat and sleepy. So maybe the art should stay outside.
BanksyI 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.
BanksyIf Michaelangelo or Leonardo Da Vinci were alive today they’d be making Avatar, not painting a chapel.
BanksyThe art world is the biggest joke going. It's a rest home for the overprivileged, the pretentious, and the weak. And modern art is a disgrace - never have so many people used so much stuff and taken so long to say so little.
BanksyIf you want someone to be ignored then build a life-size bronze statue of them and stick it in the middle of town. It doesn't matter how great you were, it'll always take an unfunny drunk with climbing skills to make people notice you.
BanksyA recent survey or North American males found 42% were overweight, 34% were critically obese and 8% ate the survey.
BanksyArt 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.
BanksyT.V. has made going to the theatre seem pointless, photography has pretty much killed painting but graffiti has remained gloriously unspoilt by progress.
BanksyIt's impossible to predict which paintings will last and which won't. In New Orleans I painted on a dilapidated shop in a street littered with abandoned cars and rotting mattresses, then two hours later the piece was gone. It turned out I'd picked the side of a crack house and the proprietor didn't like the attention.
BanksyI wanted to highlight the destruction in Gaza by posting photos on my website - but on the internet, people only look at pictures of kittens.
BanksyModern art is a disaster area. Never in the field of human history has so much been used by so many to say so little.
BanksyNothing in the world is more common than unsuccessful people with talent, leave the house before you find something worth staying in for.
BanksyIs graffiti art or vandalism? That word has a lot of negative connotations and it alienates people, so no, I don't like to use the word 'art' at all.
BanksyIt's a very frustrated feeling you get when the only people with good photos of you work are the police department.
BanksyIf you don't own a train company then you go and paint on one instead... it all comes from that thing at school when you had to have name tags in the back of something... that makes it belong to you. You can own half the city by scribbling your name over it.
BanksyYou owe the companies nothing. You especially don't owe them any courtesy. They have re-arranged the world to put themselves in front of you. They never asked for your permission, don't even start asking for theirs.
BanksyI 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.
BanksyAll I know about what people think of my gear is what a couple of my friends tell me, and one of them always wants to borrow money, so I'm not sure how reliable he is.
BanksyIf 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.
BanksyGraffiti is only dangerous in the mind of three types of people; politicians, advertising executives and graffiti writers.
BanksyThe 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