Jean-Michel Basquiat Quotes

I don't think about art when I'm working. I think about life.

There are about 30 words around you all the time, like 'thread' or 'exit.'

Most Young Kings Get Their Heads Cut Off.

I like kids' work more than work by real artists any day.

I have a painting where somebody's holding a chicken, and underneath the chicken is somebody's head.

I wanted to build up a name for myself.

SAMO as an end to to mindwash religion, nowhere politics and bogus philosophy.

Since I was seventeen I thought I might be a star. I'd think about all my heroes, Charlie Parker, Jimi Hendrix... I had a romantic feeling about how these people became famous.

I am not a black artist, I am an artist.

If I'm away from painting for a week, I get bored.

I don't listen to what art critics say. I don't know anybody who needs a critic to find out what art is.

I cross out words so you will see them more; the fact that they are obscured makes you want to read them.

I start a picture and I finish it.

Occasionally, when I get mad at a woman, I'll do some great, awful painting about her.

Fire will attract more attention than any other cry for help.

The country makes me more paranoid, you know? I think the crazy people out there are little crazier.

I wanted to be a star, not a gallery mascot.

If you wanna talk about influence, man, then you've got to realize that influence is not influence. It's simply someone's idea going through my new mind.

My favorite Twombly is 'Apollo and the Artist,' with the big 'Apollo' written across it.

I wanted to be a cartoonist when I was young.

The more I paint the more I like everything.

I was a really lousy artist as a kid. Too abstract expressionist; or I'd draw a big ram's head, really messy. I'd never win painting contests. I remember losing to a guy who did a perfect Spiderman.

I start a picture and I finish it. I don't think about art while I work. I try to think about life.

Every single line means something.

I had some money, I made the best paintings ever. I was completely reclusive, worked a lot, took a lot of drugs. I was awful to people.

I cross out words so you will see them more

Believe it or not, I can actually draw.

The black person is the protagonist in most of my paintings. I realized that I didn't see many paintings with black people in them.