Street Art Quotes

That's the test of street art – to see if anybody stopped. People would cross out ones they didn't like and would star others. I liked that people would engage with them.

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.

I like the illicit nature of street art, but I won't miss the opportunity to make a nice piece because it is legal.

The Internet wasn't even an option for me, so one of the reasons I was so motivated to do street art was because there was no other outlet. Maybe if the Internet had been around then, I would have tried to do stuff that went viral and was clever and got me a lot of hits.

I think that street art is illegal and it has to stay illegal.

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

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

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.

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.

Speak softly, but carry a big can of paint.

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.

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

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.

I hate the idea of street art. With music, I just needed my brain and my voice, which didn't cost anything.

Infiltrating the mainstream was a natural extension of my street art. I've always tried to communicate ideas to the public as directly as possible.

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.

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

A lot of people thought I got famous as a studio artist, then decided to cash in on it. But it actually was just a matter of survival for many years, and I felt it was really important for me to be able to say whatever I wanted with my street art and fine art.

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 want to make the world a better place, for women, mainly.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

When it comes to the street-art world, there are a lot of people who realize if they go out and put up a few pieces of street art and photograph them really well, even if their locations weren't actually that high-profile or dangerous, with the level of exposure they get from the Internet, with a large audience, they can maintain that rebel cache by having it be theoretically documented street art.

It is a significant symbol that street art is gaining increased attention and credibility in the art world and that's a good thing.

I think when something becomes a comfortable genre, it's against what street art stood for in the beginning - breaking out of genres and taking art out of galleries. Now street art is in the gallery, and it's all made up into a nice, packaged concept.

An artist cannot fail; it is a success to be one.

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.

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.

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.

In Afghanistan I was doing street art because it was more open, but when I had a show, only men would come. I said, I'm an artist not only for men, but for women too. So that's why I like graffiti.

Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up.

Nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent.

No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted.

I'm interested in confronting police brutality and police abuse of cracking down on street performers and street artists, but also in valorizing street art as legitimate performance within the artistic sphere, where it's so often conflated with pan-handling and begging and not "successful" art. I want to change laws around street performance.