Banksy Quotes

As far as I can tell the only thing worth looking at in most museums of art is all the schoolgirls on daytrips with the art departments. ~ Banksy

The difference between freedom and slavery is one thin line ~ Banksy

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

I started painting graffiti in the classic New York style of big letters and characters but I was never very good at it. ~ Banksy

At this time of year it's easy to forget the true meaning of Christianity - the lies, the corruption, the abuse. ~ Banksy

Art as activism. Like Banksy?"
"Man, Banksy's some white-ass bullshit. Sorry," he apologizes hastily, as though he might've offended my white-ass feelings.
[...]
"A'ight, so the dude flew out to Gaza to spray-paint a kitten on a house that'd been destroyed in an air strike. Like, the fuck? Talk about insensitive. Then our white savior has the audacity to call it art, to demand folks listen to his views on the atrocities of war, rather than the Palestinians who lived through it." He shakes his head, his hand tensing and untensing in mine. "Sorry. Shit drives me crazy sometimes. ~ Laura Steven

Only when the last tree has been cut down and the last river has dried up will man realise that reciting red indian proverbs makes you sound like a fucking muppet. ~ Banksy

One Original Thought is worth 1000 Meaningless Quotes. ~ Banksy

Painting something that defies the law of the land is good. Painting something that defies the law of the land and the law of gravity at the same time is ideal. ~ Banksy

What I really think about Banksy is I think he's a genius; he's a great artist, and I like his stuff. But he's got to accept it if, from time to time, someone will need to paint over his work. ~ Boris Johnson

My main problem with cops is that they do what they're told. They say 'Sorry mate, I'm just doing my job' all the fucking time. ~ Banksy

If you feel dirty, insignificant or unloved, then rats are a good role model. They exist without permission, they have no respect for the hierarchy of society, and they have sex 50 times a day. ~ Banksy

Today's art has been cancelled due to police activity. ~ Banksy

If you have a statue in the city centre you could go past it every day on your way to school and never even notice it, right. But as soon as someone puts a traffic cone on its head, you've made your own sculpture. ~ Banksy

There's no way you're going to get a quote from us to use on your book cover - Metropolitan Police Spokesperson ~ Banksy

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, ~ Banksy

People are taking the piss out of you everyday. They butt into your life, take a cheap shot at you and then disappear. They leer at you from tall buildings and make you feel small. They make flippant comments from buses that imply you're not sexy enough and that all the fun is happening somewhere else. They are on TV making your girlfriend feel inadequate. They have access to the most sophisticated technology the world has ever seen and they bully you with it. They are The Advertisers and they are laughing at you. ~ Banksy

Not everyone will understand your journey. That's okay. You're here to live your life, not to make everyone understand. ~ Banksy

I used to encourage everyone I knew to make art; I don't do that so much anymore. ~ Banksy

Be positive, patient and persistent. ~ Banksy

All artists are willing to suffer for their work. But why are so few prepared
to learn to draw? ~ Banksy

If 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. ~ Banksy

In the future, everybody will be anonymous for 15 minutes. ~ Banksy

Banksy is a poet, but so was hitler. ~ Atticus

My lawyer's opinion is that the cops might not actually be able to charge me with criminal damage any more - because theoretically my graffiti actually increases the value of property rather than decreasing it. That's his theory, but then my lawyer also believes wearing novelty cartoon ties is a good look. ~ Banksy

There are four basic human needs; food, sleep, sex and revenge. ~ Banksy

Keep your coins, I want change. ~ Banksy

When you go to an art gallery you are simply a tourist looking at the trophy cabinet of a few millionaires. ~ Banksy

A lot of people never use their initiative because no-one told them to. ~ Banksy

I wouldn't want to be remembered as the guy who contaminated a perfectly legitimate form of protest art with money and celebrities. ~ Banksy

A recent survey or North American males found 42% were overweight, 34% were critically obese and 8% ate the survey. ~ Banksy

Sometimes I feel so sick at the state of the world I can't even finish my second apple pie. ~ Banksy

Think outside the box, collapse the box, and take a fucking sharp knife to it. ~ Banksy

It'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. ~ Banksy

I just wanna make the world a better-looking place. If you don't like it, you can paint over it! ~ Banksy

Anyone who believes in capital punishment should be shot ~ Banksy

I've never really understood why people sleep. Wasting a third of your life and becoming vulnerable for almost 8 hours every night. Doesn't seem very appealing to me. ~ Banksy

Graffiti's always been a temporary art form. You make your mark and then they scrub it off. ~ Banksy

I used to tell everyone I met to be an artist ... I don't do that any more. ~ Banksy

I think its pretty clear that film is the pre-eminent art form of our age. If Michaelangelo or Leonardo Da Vinci were alive today they'd be making Avatar, not painting a chapel. Film is incredibly democratic and accessible, it's probably the best option if you actually want to change the world, not just re-decorate it. ~ Banksy

I originally set out to try and save the world, but now I'm not sure I like it enough. ~ Banksy

Nothing is black and white, and there is no purity and there is no such thing has justice. ~ Banksy

Graffiti ultimately wins out over proper art because it becomes part of your city, it' s a tool; "I'll meet you in that pub, you know, the one opposite that wall with a picture of a monkey holding a chainsaw". I mean, how much more useful can a painting be than that? ~ Banksy

The people who run our cities dont understand graffiti because they think nothing has the right to exist unless it makes a profit ...
the people who truly deface our neighborhoods are the companies that scrawl giant slogans across buildings and buses trying to make us feel inadequate unless we buy their stuff ...
any advertisement in public space that gives you no choice whether you see it or not is yours, it belongs to you ,, its yours to take, rearrange and re use.Asking for permission is like asking to keep a rock someone just threw at your head.. ~ Banksy

People who enjoy waving flags don't deserve to have one ~ Banksy

The human race is the most stupid and unfair kind of race. A lot of the runners don't even get decent sneakers or clean drinking water.
Some runners are born with a massive head start, every possible help along the way and still the referees seem to be on their side.
It's not surprising a lot of people have given up compeating altogether and gone to sit in the grandstand, eat junk and shout abuse.
What the human race needs is a lot more streakers. ~ Banksy

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

I'd much rather go to a Banksy art show than a Moby art show. My art is painfully naive. ~ Moby

I've learnt from experience that a painting isn't finished when you put down your brush - that's when it starts. The public reaction is what supplies meaning and value. Art comes alive in the arguments you have about it. ~ Banksy

I have no interest in ever coming out. I'm just trying to make the pictures look good; I'm not into trying to make myself look good. And besides, it's a pretty safe bet that the reality of me would be a crushing disappointment to a couple of 15-year-old kids out there. ~ Banksy

Stencils are good for two reasons; one - they're quick; two - they annoy idiots ~ Banksy

Should graffiti be judged on the same level as modern art? Of course not: It's way more important than that. ~ Banksy

Nobody ever listened to me until they didn't know who I was. ~ Banksy

If Michaelangelo or Leonardo Da Vinci were alive today they'd be making Avatar, not painting a chapel. ~ Banksy

T.V. has made going to the theatre seem pointless, photography has pretty much killed painting but graffiti has remained gloriously unspoilt by progress. ~ Banksy

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 ~ Banksy

When he time comes to leave, just walk away quietly and don't make any fuss. ~ Banksy

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

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

We don't need any more heroes; we just need someone to take out the recycling. ~ Banksy

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

It'd taken only a few hours, but I felt like Michelangelo staring at the Sistine Chapel after four years of hard labor, like Banksy after spending six days searching the Internet for ideas to steal and three minutes of sidewalk vandalism to execute them. ~ Paul Beatty

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. ~ Banksy

I love the way capitalism finds a place - even for its enemies. ~ Banksy

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. ~ Banksy

Once upon a time there was a bear and a bee who lived in a wood and were the best of friends. All summer long the bee collected nectar from morning to night while the bear lay on his back basking in the long grass. When winter came the bear realised he had nothing to eat and thought to himself 'I hope that busy little bee will share some of his honey with me.' But the bee was nowhere to be found - he had died of a stress induced coronary disease. ~ Banksy

And we were Banksy on an overpass in New Orleans spray-painting porch lights on the hurricane. We were welcome mats for the un-forgiven. We never sold our windpipes to make a living. We were the letters sent to the wrong address, but opened anyway. We opened anyway. ~ Andrea Gibson

Speak softly, but carry a big can of paint. ~ Banksy

I sucked a lot of breasts to get where I am today. ~ Banksy

I want to live in a world created by art, not just decorated with it ~ Banksy

WRITE YOUR NAME.

The first thing they teach you at school.

WRITE YOUR NAME.

Sign for your first bank account.

WRITE YOUR NAME.

At the top of your exam paper.

WRITE YOUR NAME.

On the back of your bedroom door with a drippy pen.

WRITE YOUR NAME.

To log in to facebook.

WRITE YOUR NAME.
WRITE YOUR NAME.
WRITE YOUR NAME.

As if you existed.

As if you were unique.

As if you were separate.

IN YOUR NAME.

The things you own are in your name.

YOUR NAME.

That which owns, that part of you which may possess things.

And that part of you that possesses your crimes and your crimes against possession.

Write your name on the police report.

Write your name on the caution.

Your name was written on you.

Write your name. ~ Banksy

I need someone to protect me from all the measures they take in order to protect me. ~ Banksy

Sometimes the right thing to do... is the wrong thing. ~ Banksy

People are fond of using military terms to describe what they do. We call it bombing when we go out painting, when of course it's more like entertaining the troops in a neutral zone, during peacetime in a country without an army. ~ Banksy

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

Fight the fighters, not their wars. ~ Banksy

Here's a mystery for you. Renegade urban graffiti artist Banksy is clearly a guffhead of massive proportions, yet he's often feted as a genius straddling the bleeding edge of now. Why? Because his work looks dazzlingly clever to idiots. And apparently that'll do. ~ Charlie Brooker

I don't think you should have to pay to look at graffiti. You should only pay if you want to get rid of it, ~ Banksy

This is a big surprise I don't agree with the concept of award ceremonies, but I'm prepared to make an exception for the ones I'm nominated for. The last time there was a naked man covered in gold paint in my house, it was me. ~ Banksy

I figure there are enough self-opinionated assholes trying to get their ugly little faces in front of you as it is. You ask a lot of kids today what they want to be when they grow up, and they say, 'I want to be famous.' You ask them, 'For what reason?' and they don't know or care. I think Andy Warhol got it wrong - in the future, so many people are going to become famous that one day everybody will end up being anonymous for 15 minutes. ~ Banksy

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

You ask a lot of little kids today what they want to be when they grow up and they say "I want to be famous." You ask them for what reason and they don't know or care. I think Andy Warhol got it wrong: in the future so many people are going to become famous that one day everybody will end up being anonymous for fifteen minutes. ~ Banksy

I don't know why people are so keen to put the details of their private life in public; they forget that invisibility is a superpower. ~ Banksy

You live in the city and all the time there are signs telling you what to do and billboards trying to sell you something. ~ Banksy

The holy grail is to spend less time making the picture than it takes people to look at it. ~ Banksy