Latest Shepard Fairey Quotes from Interviews

Quotes about:

• I hate to say Americans are ignorant and lazy, but a lot of them are ignorant and lazy. It's just like what I was talking about with Rebel Music and art. When you live in a place that has a lot of good things that make life easier, it's easier to take them for granted. But what frustrates me to no end are people who want to blame Obama or blame anything that is something that if they were actually doing anything as simple as voting, it might not be as bad as it is.

  Shepard Fairey

  Art, Hate, Simple

  Source: www.esquire.com

• Obama has had a really tough time, but there have been a lot of things that he's compromised on that I never would have expected. I mean, drones and domestic spying are the last things I would have thought he'd support. I've met Obama a few times, and I think Obama's a quality human being, but I think that he finds himself in a position where your actions are largely dictated by things out of your control. I'm not giving him a pass for not being more courageous, but I do think the entire system needs an overhaul and taking money out of politics would be a really good first step.

  Shepard Fairey

  Mean, Thinking, Giving

  Source: www.esquire.com

• Art making comes from the human desire to share something that is universal in one sense, but unique to your sensibility in another. I think that, wherever you are in the world, that impulse exists within human beings.

  Shepard Fairey

  Art, Thinking, Unique

  Source: www.esquire.com

• There's always a lot that's making me angry, but it won't tie into the election. I mean nothing against Hilary Clinton. I agree with Hilary on most issues, but campaign finance structure makes me very angry, because it means that politicians are going to have to raise a huge amount of money, which narrows the field dramatically.

  Shepard Fairey

  Mean, Election, Finance

  Source: www.esquire.com

• I don't agree with most forms of censorship, and I especially don't agree with the idea that one needs to be from the same cultural, ethnic, or religious background as the subjects they portray in order to be qualified to portray those subjects. I believe that compassion and empathy should cross all of those category barriers, and the conversations art creates can be inflammatory initially, but I think are most often constructive and healing in the long run.

  Shepard Fairey

  Running, Religious, Art

  Source: www.thedailybeast.com

• I might be botching this quote but I agree with the idea that a measure of society is not how it treats its most powerful but how it treats its most vulnerable, including the poor and incarcerated and - I would add to that - the people whose ideas are not currently in favor.

  Shepard Fairey

  Powerful, People, Vulnerable

  Source: www.thedailybeast.com

• Art is not always meant to be decorative or soothing, in fact, it can create uncomfortable conversations and stimulate uncomfortable emotions.

  Shepard Fairey

  Art, Emotion, Soothing

  Source: www.thedailybeast.com

• The social and political issues the world faces are bigger than a few leaders. I made a lot of work about corporate influence in government, which is a problem in both parties and under any president.

  Shepard Fairey

  Party, Leader, Political

  Source: www.thedailybeast.com

• Free speech is important whether you like what's being said or not. The reason why it's so important is that the entire spectrum of ideas needs to be heard so that the best ones are embraced and rise to the top. If you're a liberal and don't like conservative speech and you try to stifle that conservative speech, you need to be prepared for your own progressive speech to be stifled when the power shifts out of your favor.

  Shepard Fairey

  Important, Trying, Conservative

  Source: www.thedailybeast.com

• There are too many bad policy choices to go into that are being pushed by the Trump Administration, but the relaxation of environmental regulations and corporate and banking regulations alone are enough to keep me busy and should be a big concern for every citizen who isn't a billionaire and likes to breathe air.

  Shepard Fairey

  Choices, Relaxation, Environmental

  Source: www.thedailybeast.com

• Skateboarding has always been and continues to be creative and rebellious. Art and design are an extremely important part of skateboard culture, even if it's not recognized by the more elitist or pretentious members of the art world. Skateboarding itself requires creative adaptation to the streets and obstacles. My background as a skateboarder helped me to be a better street artist because I was already conditioned to look at the terrain opportunistically.

  Shepard Fairey

  Art, Creative, Design

  Source: www.thedailybeast.com

• I try to find a balance between positivity and negativity, celebration and critique in my work; I think there is room for both.

  Shepard Fairey

  Positivity, Thinking, Negativity

  Source: www.thedailybeast.com

• I think that what led largely to Trump's election was the manifestation of the too-common mindset that facts don't matter; in other words, "manifest destiny" - the truth will not penetrate the barriers of our ideology if the truth doesn't sit well with our predispositions.

  Shepard Fairey

  Destiny, Thinking, Election

  Source: www.thedailybeast.com

• A lot of people felt defeated and hopeless by Trump's election. But I feel his election should energize people to resist apathy, ignorance, sexism, xenophobia, and racism.

  Shepard Fairey

  Ignorance, Racism, People

  Source: www.thedailybeast.com

• I think that the influence of people with power and money to distort democracy and have their interests served before the rest of the population is the biggest problem. That is caused by two things: campaign finance and the way that's structured, and by the Citizen's United supreme court decision. So those two things are keeping democracy from working right.

  Shepard Fairey

  Thinking, Two, People

• What excites me is that, when things are tough, people become resourceful, and now with the Internet, social networking and the ability for people who in the past had been relatively powerless, they have tools to be able to spread ideas and organize. The urgency is there and the tools are there and I think that the possibility for really, really powerful results is there. I think it's all brewing, it's all bubbling up right now.

  Shepard Fairey

  Powerful, Past, Thinking

• I think the biggest thing that people fear when it comes to art becoming a business is those authentic, pure aspirations of art being compromised.

  Shepard Fairey

  Art, Thinking, People

  Interview with Iggy Pop, www.interviewmagazine.com. April 27, 2010.

• I think the idea of freedom or liberty is really misused for political reasons, but it's something that resonates with people to the core. People want to be masters of their own destinies, but at the same time, I think they do so selectively. Sometimes they want to be told exactly what to do so they don't have to think for themselves - as long as they can still exercise their free will.

  Shepard Fairey

  Exercise, Destiny, Thinking

  Interview with Iggy Pop, www.interviewmagazine.com. April 27, 2010.

• The way I make art - the way a lot of people make art - is as an extension of language and communication, where references are incredibly important. It's about making a work that is inspired by something preexisting but changes it to have a new value and meaning that doesn't in any way take away from the original - and, in fact, might provide the original with a second life or a new audience.

  Shepard Fairey

  Art, Communication, People

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

• If you're creating something that has some sort of cultural currency - if the idea is getting out there - then that will probably yield money in some form, whether it's through selling art or selling books or being asked to give a lecture.

  Shepard Fairey

  Art, Book, Yield

  Interview with Iggy Pop, www.interviewmagazine.com. April 27, 2010.

• I do think that copyrights and intellectual property are important - it's important to be able to keep people from making verbatim copies of a particular creation that could somehow hurt the creator. If I spend time conceiving and making a piece of art and somebody else sees that it has market value and replicates it in order to steal part of my market, then that's not cool.

  Shepard Fairey

  Art, Hurt, Thinking

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

• When it comes to the street-art world, there are a lot of people who realize if they go out and put up a few pieces of street art and photograph them really well, even if their locations weren't actually that high-profile or dangerous, with the level of exposure they get from the Internet, with a large audience, they can maintain that rebel cache by having it be theoretically documented street art.

  Shepard Fairey

  Art, People, Cache

  Source: www.avclub.com

• The Internet hasn't had a chance to really get to where people look at it with the proper level of scrutiny. There's so much bullshit on the Internet. It doesn't get filtered out because it's such a new medium.

  Shepard Fairey

  People, Bullshit, Looks

  Source: www.avclub.com

• I think the Internet has definitely made it easier for people to have stuff seen, but it's also encouraged a level of ADD, where you see so much that if it doesn't make an impact on you immediately, you don't look at it.

  Shepard Fairey

  Thinking, Impact, People

  Source: www.avclub.com

• The great thing about the Internet is, it has made it easier for people who are clever and resourceful to promote themselves.

  Shepard Fairey

  Clever, People, Internet

  Source: www.avclub.com