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.
I want to make the world a better place, for women, mainly.
Graffiti is one of the few tools you have if you have almost nothing. And even if you don't come up with a picture to cure world poverty you can make someone smile while they're having a piss.
Graffiti is one of the few tools you have if you have almost nothing.
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.
People say graffiti is ugly, irresponsible and childish... but that's only if it's done properly.
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.
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.
Become good at cheating and you never need to become good at anything else.
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.
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.
A lot of mothers will do anything for their children, except let them be themselves.
Nothing in the world is more common than unsuccessful people with talent, leave the house before you find something worth staying in for.
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.
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.
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.
Nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent.
It's a very frustrated feeling you get when the only people with good photos of you work are the police department.
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.
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.
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