Top 41 Quotes & Sayings by Jean-Michel Basquiat
Explore popular quotes and sayings by an American artist Jean-Michel Basquiat.
Last updated on September 18, 2024.
The country makes me more paranoid, you know? I think the crazy people out there are little crazier.
I played a guitar with a file, and a synthesizer.
I want to make paintings that look as if they were made by a child.
I had some money, I made the best paintings ever. I was completely reclusive, worked a lot, took a lot of drugs. I was awful to people.
For a while, I was drawing on good paper, but now I've gone back to the bad stuff. I put matte medium on it. If you put matte medium on it, it seals up, so it doesn't really matter.
I have a painting where somebody's holding a chicken, and underneath the chicken is somebody's head.
I don't listen to what art critics say. I don't know anybody who needs a critic to find out what art is.
Believe it or not, I can actually draw.
I thought I was going to be a bum the rest of my life.
I don't think about art when I'm working. I try to think about life.
Occasionally, when I get mad at a woman, I'll do some great, awful painting about her.
I was a cute kid.
Charles Saatchi has never liked my work at all.
I wanted to be a cartoonist when I was young.
If I'm away from painting for a week, I get bored.
My favorite Twombly is 'Apollo and the Artist,' with the big 'Apollo' written across it.
I wanted to build up a name for myself.
I have done only two portraits: one of the artist Francesco Clemente and another of Andy Warhol.
I had very few friends. There was nobody I could trust. I left home when I was fifteen. I lived in Washington Square Park.
I am not a black artist, I am an artist.
The more I paint the more I like everything.
I wanted to be a star, not a gallery mascot.
The black person is the protagonist in most of my paintings. I realized that I didn't see many paintings with black people in them.
Since I was seventeen I thought I might be a star. I'd think about all my heroes, Charlie Parker, Jimi Hendrix... I had a romantic feeling about how these people became famous.
My basic influence had probably been Peter Max.
There are about 30 words around you all the time, like 'thread' or 'exit.'
I was a really lousy artist as a kid. Too abstract expressionist; or I'd draw a big ram's head, really messy. I'd never win painting contests. I remember losing to a guy who did a perfect Spiderman.
I'm not a real person. I'm a legend.
I like kids' work more than work by real artists any day.
Some days I can't get an idea, and I think, 'Man, I'm just washed up,' but it's just a mood.
Medicine men live in caves.
I start a picture and I finish it.
Every single line means something.
I cross out words so you will see them more; the fact that they are obscured makes you want to read them.
Most Young Kings Get Their Heads Cut Off.
SAMO as an end to to mindwash religion, nowhere politics and bogus philosophy.
I cross out words so you will see them more
Fire will attract more attention than any other cry for help.
I don't think about art when I'm working. I think about life.
I start a picture and I finish it. I don't think about art while I work. I try to think about life.
If you wanna talk about influence, man, then you've got to realize that influence is not influence. It's simply someone's idea going through my new mind.
Related Authors
Ai Weiwei Quotes
Chinese
Artist
Andy Warhol Quotes
American
Artist
Claude Monet Quotes
French
Artist
David Hockney Quotes
English
Artist
Gerhard Richter Quotes
German
Artist
Henri Matisse Quotes
French
Artist
Kehinde Wiley Quotes
American
Artist
Leonardo da Vinci Quotes
Italian
Artist
Marcel Duchamp Quotes
French
Artist
Marina Abramovic Quotes
Serbian
Artist
Maurice Sendak Quotes
American
Artist
Michelangelo Quotes
Italian
Artist
Paul Cezanne Quotes
French
Artist
Robert Genn Quotes
Canadian
Artist
Robert Henri Quotes
American
Artist
Yoko Ono Quotes
American
Artist