Basquiat Quotes in Basquiat (1996)

[first lines]

Rene: Everybody wants to get on the Van Gogh boat. There's no trip so horrible that someone won't take it. The idea of the unrecognised genius slaving away in a garret is a deliciously foolish one. We must credit the life of Vincent Van Gogh for really sending this myth into orbit. I mean, how many pictures did he sell, one? He couldn't give them away. He has to be the most modern artist, but everybody hated him. He was so ashamed of his life that the rest of our history will be contribution to Van Gogh's neglect. No one wants to be part of a generation that ignores another like Van Gogh. In this town, one is at the mercy of the recognition factor. One's public appearance is absolute. Part of the artist's job is to get the work where I will see it. I consider myself a metaphor on the public.

Basquiat: [scrawls onto a pillar] PAY FOR SOUP BUILD A PORT SET THAT ON FIRE -SAMO

Rene: What's your name?

Basquiat: Jean-Michel Basquiat.

Rene: Oh my God, you sound famous already!

Basquiat: He says he's jealous of the moon, because you look at it. He's jealous of the sun, because it warms you. He says, "I feel you, even when I'm not feeling you. I talk to you when I'm not talking to you. I love you, even when I'm not loving you."... you know I love you, Gina.

Big Pink: Oh! How can I ever thank you?

Basquiat: Can I squeeze your titties?

Basquiat: Ah, piss paint!

Andy Warhol: Not piss paint, Jean, oxidation art!

Basquiat: Ya, I hate cleaning brushes too.

Basquiat: I gotta get out of New York...

Andy Warhol: Hey, we could go to Pittsburgh! I kinda grew up there. They have this room with all the world's famous statues in it, so you don't even have to go to Europe any more... just go to Pittsburgh.

[last lines]

Basquiat: Benny, fuck Hawaii. Let's go to Ireland. We'll stop in every bar and have a drink.

Basquiat: How long does it take to get famous?

Benny Dalmau: Four years. Six to get rich.

Basquiat: Whoa! Warhol!

Benny Dalmau: That's Andy Warhol...

[pause]

Benny Dalmau: He's a fuckin' homo.

Basquiat: Duck-man! Can I get two ducks, man?

Cynthia Kruger: I just don't know if I can live with the green.

Basquiat: You want me to make it a nice shit brown?

Tom Kruger: I beg your pardon. Nobody makes fun of my wife but me.

Basquiat: You check everyone's money or just mine?

Counterman at Deli: Just yours.