Hirst Quotes & Sayings

Making art, good art, is always a struggle. It can make you happy when you pull it off. There's no better feeling. It's beauteous. But it's always about hard work and inspiration and sweat and good ideas. — Damien Hirst

But for me, from my point of view, I don't mind if it falls over ... if you break the glass you replace the glass, if the sheep falls out you can always get a new sheep. — Damien Hirst

I don't really have a career plan. — Damien Hirst

I had a passport where I wrote 'artist' under 'occupation' and I remember thinking, 'That's it, it's proved!' — Damien Hirst

Since I was a child, death is definitely something that I think about every day. But I think that everybody does. You try and avoid it, but it's such a big thing that you can't. — Damien Hirst

There is a gap between the knowledge, skills, or state of mind of the learner and what he is to learn, which it seems to me any teaching activity must seek to bridge if it is to deserve that label. Teaching activities must therefore take place at a level where the pupil can take on what it is intended he should learn. — Paul Q. Hirst

When you're making a TV drama, the showrunner is God, and so however onerous and difficult and consuming that responsibility is, you're being treated with respect, so it changes your whole outlook to the production. You're being asked about costumes, set design, music, every aspect of the show. — Michael Hirst

People don't like contemporary art, but all art starts life as contemporary - I can't really see a difference. — Damien Hirst

I'm a huge fan of Michael Hirst, and I'm a huge fan of historical drama. — Donal Logue

It's good to have a title that's not just one word. If you're gonna title it, you might as well try and say something. — Damien Hirst

No, I don't believe in genius. I believe in freedom. I think anyone can do it. Anyone can be like Rembrandt. — Damien Hirst

I'm a massive fan of Brit Art in general and Damien Hirst in particular. I think he's an absolute genius and should be celebrated in every way. — David Morrissey

But I think it's more that when you're young, you're invincible, you're immortal - or at least you think you are. The possibilities are limitless, you're inventing the future. Then you get older and suddenly you have a history. It's fixed. You can't change anything. I find that a bit disturbing, to be honest. — Damien Hirst

The American obsession with 'Downton' amuses me slightly because it's such a fiction. I've always been questioned about my historical veracity, and 'Downton' just flies past, when it's completely made up. — Michael Hirst

Never let money get in the way of an idea — Damien Hirst

But I could never make a judgement that something was obscene. — Damien Hirst

I couldn't give 'Vikings' away - I mean, I love these people. And I'm not sure anyone else writing it would necessarily have the same feeling towards the characters that I do. — Michael Hirst

First episodes are difficult things to write. — Michael Hirst

I always try to make everyone mellow down, make sure everybody's happy. The people I have employed have always kind of stayed with us. A lot of people who come to work for you are artists in their own right. And they want to work for you because they want to pick something up. — Damien Hirst

'Downton Abbey' is just one cliche after another, and it is a really, really poor piece of drama. But that's only me talking. That's just my take on it. — Michael Hirst

I don't think I'd want my pet in formaldehyde, but I guess in America they would. — Damien Hirst

Death's just something that inspires me, not something that pulls me down. I used to get called morbid at school. I have always loved horror films; I like being frightened. — Damien Hirst

I only have one idol: John Lennon. — Michael Hirst

As a father, I would say I am more like a mother. I do a lot of hugging. — Damien Hirst

People love cliches. If you can give people cliches, that's very good TV, then. — Michael Hirst

I have titles floating around in my head; I have sculptures floating around in my head. It's like a collage. — Damien Hirst

The idea of being a painter, I've always thought, is better than being an artist or a sculptor. — Damien Hirst

I felt that a lot of Viking culture had been caricatured and misconstrued. After all, they were far more democratic than the Saxons and the Francs, who were exercising really hierarchical social structures at that time. The Vikings had popular meetings where everything could be discussed. — Michael Hirst

Art is the closest you can get to immortality, though it's a poor substitute - you're working for people not yet born - and people want it because it is brilliant. It ends up in museums anyway; the rich have to give it back to the people, it's their only option. There are no pockets in a shroud. — Damien Hirst

The difference between art about death and actual death is that one's a celebration and the other's a dull fact. — Damien Hirst

I just wanted to find out where the boundaries were. So far I've found there aren't any. I just wanted to be stopped, and no one will stop me. — Damien Hirst

I have always been aware that you have to get people listening before you can change their minds. Any artist's big fear is being ignored, so if you get debate, that's great. — Damien Hirst

You've really got to get down on the floor with yourself and get low in order to make great art. I think you've just got to accept who you are and do the most unbelievable things. — Damien Hirst

Thank God, Helen, I'm not like you! I sometimes think you don't think or feel or care to do anything but exist! You're like Mr. Hirst. You see that things are bad, and you pride yourself on saying so. It's what you call being honest; as a matter of fact it's being lazy, being dull, being nothing. You don't help; you put an end to things. — Virginia Woolf

A painting probably is the most shocking increase in value, from what it costs to make to what you sell it for. — Damien Hirst

Sometimes when you're drunk you can see better. — Damien Hirst

In an artwork you're always looking for artistic decisions, so an ashtray is perfect. An ashtray has got life and death. — Damien Hirst

I love Damien Hirst. I respect his work a great deal, and I am happy that the polka dots I started using have become a symbol of love and peace around the world with everybody joining hands to use them in this way. — Yayoi Kusama

For artists it's a lot easier to make art in bad times than it is in good times. When you've got no money it's easy to just drink your way through it and make great art. But if you're making lots of money it can be very problematic. — Damien Hirst

You have to create characters - certainly in series TV - who people engage with. They don't have to be nice; you don't have to agree with them. But they do have to be compulsively watchable and believable and human, and you want to know what happens to them. — Michael Hirst

I got interested in the Vikings, and then you realize that there isn't much to be read about them because they did not write their history. It was written by hostile witnesses, by Christian monks and so on. From what I could see and understand, I was really excited about it. I loved their culture and loved their gods. — Michael Hirst

I love color. I feel it inside me. It gives me a buzz. — Damien Hirst

Here's one from me: 'You have to be aware that everyone else is thinking far too hard about themselves to be thinking about you, whoever you are.' If you want it, you can have it. Once you know that, you can be free. — Damien Hirst

Women are always murdered and maimed, and they're never given their rightful place as lead characters! And I think [creator Michael Hirst] has just written what should have been written a long time ago. There shouldn't be anything that different about Vikings, but there is, because there've just been so many shows that have not stepped up to the plate and given female actors and female characters equal footing. — Clive Standen

The spot paintings, the spin paintings, they're all a mechanical way to avoid the actual guy in a room, myself, with a blank canvas. — Damien Hirst

I gave up painting by 16. I secretly thought I would have been Rembrandt by then. — Damien Hirst

Once I engage in something, I really engage in it, and I love the process of reading and researching because I come from an academic background. — Michael Hirst

Because it's visual art, a lot of it comes from childhood experience but then a lot comes from the visual language - in advertising and stuff like that - which is around us. — Damien Hirst

I just hope that I can be kind of like the Beatles. I really like that kind of model. I like the way that without losing integrity they could change through fashion and not look back at the '60s and vomit when they saw what they'd done. — Damien Hirst

It works better if your lead character is complex and interesting and not perfect. — Michael Hirst

I remember when you used to have your profession on your passport and I always thought that being a painter was the best one to be, because my heroes were Goya and Francis Bacon. — Damien Hirst

If the choice is between buying another building or a Pollock, I'd go for the Pollock every time. — Damien Hirst

Museums are for dead artists. I'd never show my work in the Tate. You'd never get me in that place. — Damien Hirst

Until the late 1970s there'd either be only black or white in the paintings or if there were colours it would be a small amount, not a large area, and with the color separated from other colors by black or white (which is formula for Damien Hirst's successful dot paintings, incidentally). — Matthew Collings

What I really like is minimum effort for maximum effect. — Damien Hirst

It's very easy to say, 'I could have done that,' after someone's done it. But I did it. You didn't. It didn't exist until I did it. — Damien Hirst

Buy art, build a museum, put your name on it, let people in for free. That's as close as you can get to immortality ... — Damien Hirst

the people of Lebanon' were offering a 'model' and a 'strong proof that it is not only Gaza, the West Bank and Jerusalem which Arab armies and peoples are capable of liberating, but - with one small decision and a bit of determination - [the whole of] Palestine too, from the river to the sea'.4 — David Hirst

If you're in America or Europe, walk for three blocks, and you'll pass about 14 Vikings. Their reach was immense. — Michael Hirst

On the opposite wall was a Damien Hirst spot painting, bought by Arabella after a decent bonus season. Roger's considered view of the painting, looking at it from aesthetic, art-historical, interior-design, and psychological points of view, was that it had cost forty-seven thousand pounds, plus VAT. — John Lanchester

The coolest party I've ever D.J.ed would have to be for the artist Damien Hirst. It was an amazing party in Berlin. I had such a great time, and people danced all night long. — Chelsea Leyland

I'm 43. I'm not ready to sit down in a chair with my name on it yet. — Damien Hirst

I have a Damien Hirst spot painting which I love. It has pride of place over my dining-room table. — Cat Deeley

When you cross a challenge that is expansive and deep, you may not even realize when you've come to the other side. That day will come. And when it does, how will you look at your crossing? — Teresa Hirst

I definitely think about death. And every day your relationship with death changes. And every day I sort of feel like I know it more. I've always thought about it. — Damien Hirst

Immortality is really desirable, I guess. In terms of images, anyway. — Damien Hirst

I sometimes feel that I have nothing to say and I want to communicate this. — Damien Hirst

It's a great advantage to be able to play people off against each other, isn't it? You go to Christie's and get a quote on something. And then you go to Phillips' and you tell them what Christie's has given you. I like auctions for artists. — Damien Hirst

Teaching is what is technically known as a polymorphous activity; it quite literally takes many different forms. — Paul Q. Hirst

I think Damien Hirst is hilarious. And I think he's a true artist. He's not hilarious first; I think he is a real artist, and I also think he's got an amazing sense of humor. — Jemima Kirke

I always feel like the art's there and I just see it, so it's not really a lot of work. — Damien Hirst

The Vikings certainly didn't write anything about themselves; it was not a literate, but rather a pagan, culture. So what we get was written later by Christian monks. But there were occasional reportings and recordings of people who had traded usually with the Vikings. — Michael Hirst

Artists are like everybody else. — Damien Hirst

It's ridiculous what I do. I can't believe in it - but I have to. — Damien Hirst

Nobody knows what really happened in any historical period. There are some periods where we know more than others, though. — Michael Hirst

With 'The Tudors,' I had a huge amount of material, I mean so many books and so much stuff about what they really said. So, in a way it was kind of trying to strip it out and find the stories inside all this material. — Michael Hirst

But it's like the horror of being in a studio with a blank canvas. I used to always run out of ideas because there are so many possibilities and I would just think, well what am I going to do now! — Damien Hirst

Commercials are so contemporary and up to date that when you're involved in that visual world, you can't really go backwards. — Damien Hirst

Art comes from everywhere. It's your response to your surroundings. — Damien Hirst

Even as a kid in drawing class, I had real ambition. I wanted to be the best in the class, but there was always some other feller who was better; so I thought, 'It can't be about being the best, it has to be about the drawing itself, what you do with it.' That's kind of stuck with me. — Damien Hirst

I've been asked to do a retrospective since I was about 28 and I always thought that was a bit odd. It's great to look forward as an artist because in the future the possibilities are infinite; you look back and it's all fixed so it's a scary thing. — Damien Hirst

But I'm more interested in why people are frightened by Jaws and why Jaws was such a hit than saying Spielberg's my main influence. — Damien Hirst

A lot of people thought I wasn't doing anything because I was spending a lot of time socialising and going out, but I've always managed to get work actually done. — Damien Hirst

I was taught to confront things you can't avoid. Death is one of those things. To live in a society where you're trying not to look at it is stupid because looking at death throws us back into life with more vigour and energy. The fact that flowers don't last for ever makes them beautiful. — Damien Hirst

TV drama - not always, but on the whole - were pretty appalling and very secondary, too. No one expected it to be like watching a movie; that was the point. But I think when you start watching 'Vikings,' it is like watching a movie - you're taken somewhere else. — Michael Hirst

There was a point I could have just churned out the spot and spin paintings for ever and laughed all the way to the bank. — Damien Hirst

I liked The Beatles a lot when I was growing up. — Damien Hirst

I was brought up Catholic, and I felt the power of art from a very young age - seeing the brutality of all those images of flayed apostles and tortured saints was a pretty strong introduction. — Damien Hirst

I think suicide is the most perfect thing you can do in life. — Damien Hirst

Of course I had written a film about Elizabeth I, and I loved the Tudor period, and I think at the time Working Title and I had debated on whether to do Elizabeth I or Henry VIII. I'd always wanted to do Henry VIII. Like Elizabeth, I'd had this feeling that it had never properly been addressed. — Michael Hirst

For 'Vikings,' we have to do so much outside shooting, and it's normally - I think with American shows, it'll be 60 or 70 percent inside and a little bit outside, but with us, it's almost 70 percent outside, and that's huge and really difficult. — Michael Hirst

I've had laser eye surgery and I don't wear glasses any more, so people just go, 'You're not Damien Hirst.' I don't get recognized on the street. — Damien Hirst

It's amazing what you can do with an E in A-Level art, a twisted imagination and a chainsaw. — Damien Hirst

I think an ashtray is the most fantastically real thing. — Damien Hirst

When you've just done it, you're not sure. But when you've sat with it for a couple of hours and you don't want to do anything more to it, that's a great feeling. It can stand on its own two feet. — Damien Hirst

Pupils may learn many things when a teacher is not in fact teaching. — Paul Q. Hirst

I did a load of medicine cabinets a long time ago and I named them after Sex Pistols songs. I suppose I must be getting old if I'm naming work after Philip Larkin poems. — Damien Hirst

I always look at money not as a motivating factor but as an element in the composition. You can't ignore it, but you've got to be very careful that it's not motivating you. — Damien Hirst

I've found that using historical material and being rooted in historical material is liberating because I always think to myself, 'Well, this actually happened, and this is fantastic!' That's why I don't like fantasy, in a way. Because it's sort of in emptiness. — Michael Hirst

I made one untitled piece. — Damien Hirst