Banksy quotes:

People who get up early in the morning cause war, death and famine.

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

If you want someone to be ignored then build a life-size bronze statue of them and stick it in the middle of town. It doesn't matter how great you were, it'll always take an unfunny drunk with climbing skills to make people notice you.

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.

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.

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

Sometimes I feel so sick at the state of the world I can't even finish my second apple pie.

It's a very frustrated feeling you get when the only people with good photos of you work are the police department.

Nothing in the world is more common than unsuccessful people with talent, leave the house before you find something worth staying in for.

This is a big surprise I don't agree with the concept of award ceremonies, but I'm prepared to make an exception for the ones I'm nominated for. The last time there was a naked man covered in gold paint in my house, it was me.

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.

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.

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

You're advised not to drink the replica Arab spring water.

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.

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

I give away thousands of paintings for free.

I'd been painting rats for three years before someone said 'that's clever it's an anagram of art' and I had to pretend I'd known that all along.

Film is incredibly democratic and accessible, it's probably the best option if you actually want to change the world, not just re-decorate it.

Think from outside the box, collapse the box and take a fucking knife to it.

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

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

You live in the city and all the time there are signs telling you what to do and billboards trying to sell you something.

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

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

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?

Art should comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

I like to think I have the guts to stand up anonymously in a western democracy and call for things no-one else believes in - like peace and justice and freedom.

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

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.

The bad artists imitate, the great artists steal,

The holy grail is to spend less time making the picture than it takes people to look at it.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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

One Original Thought is worth 1000 Meaningless Quotes.

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

My main problem with cops is that they do what they're told. They say 'Sorry mate, I'm just doing my job' all the fucking time.

Art is not like other culture because its success is not made by its audience. The public fill concert halls and cinemas every day, we read novels by the millions, and buy records by the billions. 'We the people'--affect the making and quality of most of our culture, but not our art.

A recent survey or North American males found 42% were overweight, 34% were critically obese and 8% ate the survey.

If you have a statue in the city centre you could go past it every day on your way to school and never even notice it, right. But as soon as someone puts a traffic cone on its head, you've made your own sculpture.

Speak softly, but carry a big can of paint.

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

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

I need someone to protect me from all the measures they take in order to protect me.

I know street art can feel increasingly like the marketing wing of an art career, so I wanted to make some art without the price tag attached. There's no gallery show or book or film. It's pointless. Which hopefully means something.

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.

If at first you don't succeed, Call an airstrike.

People either love me or they hate me, or they don't really care.

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.

The one thing you can rely on is if you get disturbed halfway through a painting and it looks a bit naff, then someone will preserve that piece, remove it and a few months later it'll be paraded round Sotheby's by people wearing white gloves.

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.

I wouldn't want to be remembered as the guy who contaminated a perfectly legitimate form of protest art with money and celebrities.

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

People are fond of using military terms to describe what they do. We call it bombing when we go out painting, when of course it's more like entertaining the troops in a neutral zone, during peacetime in a country without an army.

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..

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.

At this time of year it's easy to forget the true meaning of Christianity - the lies, the corruption, the abuse.

I've never really understood why people sleep. Wasting a third of your life and becoming vulnerable for almost 8 hours every night. Doesn't seem very appealing to me.

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

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

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.

Some people criticize me for using sources that are a bit low brow (this quote is from 'Gladiator') but you know what? 'I'm just going to use that hostility to make me stronger, not weaker' as Kelly Rowland said on the X Factor,

It's impossible to predict which paintings will last and which won't. In New Orleans I painted on a dilapidated shop in a street littered with abandoned cars and rotting mattresses, then two hours later the piece was gone. It turned out I'd picked the side of a crack house and the proprietor didn't like the attention.

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.

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

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.

If you don't own a train company then you go and paint on one instead... it all comes from that thing at school when you had to have name tags in the back of something... that makes it belong to you. You can own half the city by scribbling your name over it.

Stencils are good for two reasons; one - they're quick; two - they annoy idiots

Brandalism Any advertisement in public space that gives you no choice whether you see it or not is yours. It belongs to you. It's yours to take, rearrange and re-use. Asking for permission is like asking to keep a rock someone just threw at your head.

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.

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

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

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

You owe the companies nothing. You especially don't owe them any courtesy. They have re-arranged the world to put themselves in front of you. They never asked for your permission, don't even start asking for theirs.

Anyone who believes in capital punishment should be shot

I wouldnt want to be remembered as the guy who contaminated a perfectly legitimate form of protest art with money and celebrities.

I used to tell everyone I met to be an artist..... I don't do that any more.

Live as a villain, die as a hero

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

Today's art has been cancelled due to police activity.

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

The difference between freedom and slavery is one thin line

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

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

Nobody knows what you feel inside unless you tell them.

The human race is the most stupid and unfair kind of race. A lot of the runners don't even get decent sneakers or clean drinking water. Some runners are born with a massive head start, every possible help along the way and still the referees seem to be on their side. It's not surprising a lot of people have given up compeating altogether and gone to sit in the grandstand, eat junk and shout abuse. What the human race needs is a lot more streakers.

Some people represent authority without ever possessing any of their own.

When he time comes to leave, just walk away quietly and don't make any fuss.

People who enjoy waving flags don't deserve to have one

Nothing is black and white, and there is no purity and there is no such thing has justice.

People seem to think if they dress like a revolutionary they don`t actually have to behave like one.

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.

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

If you feel dirty, insignificant or unloved, then rats are a good role model. They exist without permission, they have no respect for the hierarchy of society, and they have sex 50 times a day.

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

Art is not like other culture because its success is not made by its audience. The public fill concert halls and cinemas every day, we read novels by the millions, and buy records by the billions. 'We the people' affect the making and quality of most of our culture, but not our art

The grumpier you are, the more assholes you meet.

Once upon a time there was a bear and a bee who lived in a wood and were the best of friends. All summer long the bee collected nectar from morning to night while the bear lay on his back basking in the long grass. When winter came the bear realised he had nothing to eat and thought to himself 'I hope that busy little bee will share some of his honey with me.' But the bee was nowhere to be found - he had died of a stress induced coronary disease.

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

Painting something that defies the law of the land is good. Painting something that defies the law of the land and the law of gravity at the same time is ideal.

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,

I figure there are enough self-opinionated assholes trying to get their ugly little faces in front of you as it is. You ask a lot of kids today what they want to be when they grow up, and they say, 'I want to be famous.' You ask them, 'For what reason?' and they don't know or care. I think Andy Warhol got it wrong - in the future, so many people are going to become famous that one day everybody will end up being anonymous for 15 minutes.

I used to encourage everyone I knew to make art; I don't do that so much anymore.