Top 130 Quotes & Sayings by Banksy

Explore popular quotes and sayings by an English artist Banksy.

Last updated on December 3, 2024.

Banksy is a pseudonymous England-based street artist, political activist and film director whose real name and identity remain unconfirmed and the subject of speculation. Active since the 1990s, his satirical street art and subversive epigrams combine dark humour with graffiti executed in a distinctive stenciling technique. His works of political and social commentary have appeared on streets, walls and bridges throughout the world. Banksy's work grew out of the Bristol underground scene, which involved collaborations between artists and musicians. Banksy says that he was inspired by 3D, a graffiti artist and founding member of the musical group Massive Attack.

English - Artist

Source: Wikipedia

There's obviously nothing wrong with selling your art - only an idiot with a trust fund would tell you otherwise. But it's confusing to know how far you should take it.

Banksy

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

Banksy

I give away thousands of paintings for free.

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

All graffiti is low-level dissent, but stencils have an extra history. They've been used to start revolutions and to stop wars.

Banksy

It's great, I guess, when your paintings are hanging up in a museum.

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

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

Banksy

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

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

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

Banksy

We can't do anything to change the world until capitalism crumbles. In the meantime we should all go shopping to console ourselves.

Banksy

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

Banksy

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

Banksy

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

Banksy

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

Banksy

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

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

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

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

Banksy

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

Banksy

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.

Banksy

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.

Banksy

Speak softly, but carry a big can of paint.

Banksy

All graffiti is low-level dissent, but stencils have an extra history. They've been used to start revolutions and to stop wars

Banksy

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.

Banksy

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.

Banksy

Nobody knows what you feel inside unless you tell them.

Banksy

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

Banksy

You can win the rat race but you're still a rat.

Banksy

There's nothing more dangerous than someone who wants to make the world a better place.

Banksy

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

Banksy

The bad artists imitate, the great artists steal.

Banksy

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

Banksy

I don't know if street art ever really works indoors. If you domesticate an animal, it goes from being wild and free to sterile, fat and sleepy. So maybe the art should stay outside.

Banksy

Live as a villain, die as a hero

Banksy

One Original Thought is worth 1000 Meaningless Quotes.

Banksy

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

Banksy

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

Banksy

I don't believe in anything. I'm just here for the violence.

Banksy

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

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

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.

Banksy

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

Banksy

On Painting Rats, and the Glorification of Them. They exist without permission. They are hated, hunted and persecuted. They live in quiet desperation amongst the filth. And yet they are capable of bringing entire civilizations to their knees. If you are dirty, insignificant, and unloved then rats are the ultimate role model.

Banksy

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.

Banksy

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

Banksy

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

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

Banksy

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.

Banksy

The grumpier you are, the more assholes you meet.

Banksy

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

Banksy

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

Banksy

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.

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

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

Banksy

Art should comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable.

Banksy

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.

Banksy

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

Banksy

Keep your coins, I want change.

Banksy

Top 130 Quotes & Sayings by Banksy

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