Jean-Michel Basquiat quotes:
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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.
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Most Young Kings Get Their Heads Cut Off.
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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.
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I don't listen to what art critics say. I don't know anybody who needs a critic to find out what art is.
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My favorite Twombly is 'Apollo and the Artist,' with the big 'Apollo' written across it.
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I like kids' work more than work by real artists any day.
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I start a picture and I finish it.
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Every single line means something.
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I wanted to be a star, not a gallery mascot.
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I start a picture and I finish it. I don't think about art while I work. I try to think about life.
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The country makes me more paranoid, you know? I think the crazy people out there are little crazier.
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Occasionally, when I get mad at a woman, I'll do some great, awful painting about her.
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Believe it or not, I can actually draw.
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I have a painting where somebody's holding a chicken, and underneath the chicken is somebody's head.
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I wanted to build up a name for myself.
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Fire will attract more attention than any other cry for help.
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SAMO as an end to to mindwash religion, nowhere politics and bogus philosophy.
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I thought I was going to be a bum the rest of my life.
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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.
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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.
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I wanted to be a star, not a gallery mascot
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I wanted to be a cartoonist when I was young.
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There are about 30 words around you all the time, like 'thread' or 'exit.'
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I cross out words so you will see them more; the fact that they are obscured makes you want to read them.
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The more I paint the more I like everything.
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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.
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I am not a black artist, I am an artist.
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I cross out words so you will see them more
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If I'm away from painting for a week, I get bored.
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I don't think about art when I'm working. I think about life.