Michel Basquiat Quotes & Sayings

Most Young Kings Get Their Heads Cut Off. — Jean-Michel Basquiat

I cross out words so you will see them more; the fact that they are obscured makes you want to read them. — Jean-Michel Basquiat

I have done only two portraits: one of the artist Francesco Clemente and another of Andy Warhol. — Jean-Michel Basquiat

I had all these tapes in my closet that I had shot years ago with my friend Jean-Michel Basquiat. I was working on a film about him when he died, and then I just put everything away. It was too sad. — Tamra Davis

Medicine men live in caves. — Jean-Michel Basquiat

There are about 30 words around you all the time, like 'thread' or 'exit.' — Jean-Michel Basquiat

If I'm away from painting for a week, I get bored. — Jean-Michel Basquiat

The country makes me more paranoid, you know? I think the crazy people out there are little crazier. — Jean-Michel Basquiat

I didn't start doing graffiti until two years after I got to New York. Jean Michel Basquiat was one of my main inspirations for doing graffiti. For a year I didn't know who Jean Michel was, but I knew his work. — Keith Haring

I start a picture and I finish it. I don't think about art while I work. I try to think about life. — Jean-Michel Basquiat

I'm not a real person. I'm a legend. — Jean-Michel Basquiat

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. — Jean-Michel Basquiat

I am not a black artist, I am an artist. — Jean-Michel Basquiat

Every single line means something. — Jean-Michel Basquiat

I thought I was going to be a bum the rest of my life. — Jean-Michel Basquiat

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. — Jean-Michel Basquiat

I played a guitar with a file, and a synthesizer. — Jean-Michel Basquiat

I don't think about art when I'm working. I try to think about life. — Jean-Michel Basquiat

Occasionally, when I get mad at a woman, I'll do some great, awful painting about her. — Jean-Michel Basquiat

I wanted to be a cartoonist when I was young. — Jean-Michel Basquiat

Some days I can't get an idea, and I think, 'Man, I'm just washed up,' but it's just a mood. — Jean-Michel Basquiat

I wanted to build up a name for myself. — Jean-Michel Basquiat

I have a painting where somebody's holding a chicken, and underneath the chicken is somebody's head. — Jean-Michel Basquiat

In 1983, I was working at an art gallery in Los Angeles and going to film school at Los Angeles City College. At that time, Jean-Michel Basquiat was a young painter and was visiting L.A. for his first show at the Larry Gagosian Gallery. — Tamra Davis

SAMO as an end to to mindwash religion, nowhere politics and bogus philosophy. — Jean-Michel Basquiat

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. — Jean-Michel Basquiat

Fire will attract more attention than any other cry for help. — Jean-Michel Basquiat

I like kids' work more than work by real artists any day. — Jean-Michel Basquiat

I wanted to be a star, not a gallery mascot. — Jean-Michel Basquiat

The more I paint the more I like everything. — Jean-Michel Basquiat

My favorite Twombly is 'Apollo and the Artist,' with the big 'Apollo' written across it. — Jean-Michel Basquiat

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. — Jean-Michel Basquiat

Charles Saatchi has never liked my work at all. — Jean-Michel Basquiat

In general, you have great artists who have died far too early and who have left great cultural impact. If you look at people like Vincent van Gogh or Jean-Michel Basquiat-there's a long, long list of artists who have died in tragic circumstances, and far, far too early. — Simon De Pury

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. — Jean-Michel Basquiat