Banksy Graffiti Quotes & Sayings

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. — Banksy

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. — Banksy

Let us not be afraid of decreasing. It is like the moon, we see the moon increasing and decreasing, but it is always the moon. — Nhat Hanh

You can't buy history new. — N.D. Wilson

As long as I can remember, I've been writing - first poems, then stories, and by my early teenage years I was also in love with sailing. — Nathaniel Philbrick

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, — Banksy

Art is nothing but the expression of our dream; the more we surrender to it the closer we get to the inner truth of things, our dream-life, the true life that scorns questions and does not see them. — Franz Marc

Listen you here to me boy. The only way this book is gonnae turn you intae a tall, Aryan god, is if you stand on the bloody thing. — Ian Pattison

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? — Banksy

Poverty continues to exist. Its appearance seems to be relentless in evidencing itself not only to all the things we experience here in America, but certainly what we see globally. And I don't see anywhere any philosophical analysis that suggests we know how to get out of this. — Harry Belafonte

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

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

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. — Banksy

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. — Robert Montgomery

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

The small alien walked past the car. 'CO2 level up 0.5 per cent,' it rasped, giving him a meaningful look. 'You do know you could find yourself charged with being a dominant species while under the influence of impulse-driven consumerism, don't you?' The — Terry Pratchett

T.V. has made going to the theatre seem pointless, photography has pretty much killed painting but graffiti has remained gloriously unspoilt by progress. — 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

Race in this country is still the elephant in the room that no one wants to discuss. — Lenny Kravitz

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

Speak softly, but carry a big can of paint. — Banksy

Let us consider under what disadvantages Science has hitherto labored before we pronounce thus confidently on her progress. — Henry David Thoreau

My lawyer's opinion is that the cops might not actually be able to charge me with criminal damage any more - because theoretically my graffiti actually increases the value of property rather than decreasing it. That's his theory, but then my lawyer also believes wearing novelty cartoon ties is a good look. — 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

But there's no way round it-commercial success is a mark of failure for a graffiti artist. We're not supposed to be embraced in that way. When you look at how society rewards so many of the wrong people, it's hard not to view financial reimbursement as a badge of self-serving mediocrity. — Banksy

As for the extraordinary operations of the Holy Ghost, such as working of miracles, or speaking with divers kinds of tongues, they are long since ceased. — George Whitefield

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

Traditional graffiti writers have a bunch of rules they like to stick to, and good luck to them, but I didn't become a graffiti artist so I could have somebody else tell me what to do. If you're the type who gets sentimental about people scribbling over your stuff, I suggest graffiti is probably not the right hobby for you. — Banksy

What you can't buy is the loyalty that comes through our dedicated crewmembers. — David Neeleman

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