Banksy Quotes

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.

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

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.

Speak softly, but carry a big can of paint.

Graffiti is one of the few tools you have if you have almost nothing.

Live as a villain, die as a hero

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.

Writing graffiti is about the most honest way you can be an artist. It takes no money to do it, you don't need an education to understand it, and there's no admission fee.

Bus stops are far more interesting and useful places to have art than in museums. Graffiti has more chance of meaning something or changing stuff than anything indoors. Graffiti has been used to start revolutions, stop wars, and generally is the voice of people who aren't listened to. Graffiti is one of those 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 somebody smile while they're having a piss.

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.

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

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.

Art should comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable.

A wall is a very big weapon. It's one of the nastiest things you can hit someone with.

If at first you don't succeed, Call an airstrike.

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.

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

Is 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.

A lot of mothers will do anything for their children, except let them be themselves.

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.

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.

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.

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.

I have a theory that you can make any sentence seem profound by writing the name of a dead philosopher at the end of it.

Become good at cheating and you never need to become good at anything else.

The 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.

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

Bus stops are far more interesting and useful places to have art than in museums.

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

It doesn't take much to be a successful artist-all you need to do is dedicate your entire life to it.

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.

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

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.

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?

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.

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.

You don't need planning permission to build castles in the sky

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

Remember crime against property is not real crime. People look at an oil painting and admire the use of brushstrokes to convey meaning. People look at a graffiti painting and admire the use of a drainpipe to gain access.

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

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

Think outside the box, collapse the box, and take a f**king sharp knife to it.

The Art we look at is made by only a select few. A small group create, promote, purchase, exhibit and decide the success of Art. Only a few hundred people in the world have any real say. When you go to an Art gallery you are simply a tourist looking at the trophy cabinet of a few millionaires

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

The grumpier you are, the more assholes you meet.

Graffiti is only dangerous in the mind of three types of people; politicians, advertising executives and graffiti writers.

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.

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.

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.

If it doesn’t matter, get rid of it. If you can’t get rid of it, it matters.