Damien Hirst Quotes
Top 84 wise famous quotes and sayings by Damien Hirst
Damien Hirst Famous Quotes & Sayings
Discover top inspirational quotes from Damien Hirst on Wise Famous Quotes.
I like the confusion you get between science and religion ... that's where belief lies and art as well.
In fact, the first piece of art I ever sold, I paid someone else to make the next one, so I could actually keep going out drinking.
Picasso, Michelangelo, possibly, might be verging on genius, but I don't think a painter like Rembrandt is a genius.
The spot paintings, the spin paintings, they're all a mechanical way to avoid the actual guy in a room, myself, with a blank canvas.
I've spent a long time avoiding painting and dealing with it from a distance. But as I get older, I'm more comfortable with it.
I had a passport where I wrote 'artist' under 'occupation' and I remember thinking, 'That's it, it's proved!'
The difference between art about death and actual death is that one's a celebration and the other's a dull fact.
When it comes to the British monarchy, I prefer to be seduced by an image than presented with a real person. It's kind of a Warhol thing.
So smoking is the perfect way to commit suicide without actually dying. I smoke because it's bad, it's really simple.
In an artwork you're always looking for artistic decisions, so an ashtray is perfect. An ashtray has got life and death.
There was a point I could have just churned out the spot and spin paintings for ever and laughed all the way to the bank.
Art goes on in your head. If you said something interesting, that might be a title for a work of art and I'd write it down.
I don't see what else you can spend your money on ... If you want to own things, art is a pretty good bet.
People don't like contemporary art, but all art starts life as contemporary - I can't really see a difference.
But I'm more interested in why people are frightened by Jaws and why Jaws was such a hit than saying Spielberg's my main influence.
I have titles floating around in my head; I have sculptures floating around in my head. It's like a collage.
It's very easy to say, 'I could have done that,' after someone's done it. But I did it. You didn't. It didn't exist until I did it.
It's good to have a title that's not just one word. If you're gonna title it, you might as well try and say something.
I wanted a shark that's big enough to eat you, and in a large enough amount of liquid so that you could imagine you were in there with it.
It'd be nice to make lots of money but it's quite difficult, because every time I make lots of money I make a bigger piece that costs lots of money.
No, I don't believe in genius. I believe in freedom. I think anyone can do it. Anyone can be like Rembrandt.
Whenever I've been well-known or hitting the press, I've always had to get my credit card out to prove I'm Damien Hirst.
But whenever I look at the question of how to live, the answer's always staring me in the face. I'm already doing it.
I did a butterfly show in Berlin, and we had a guy who's an expert on butterflies; who bred them all and who looks after them all in the space.
I can't understand why most people believe in medicine and don't believe in art, without questioning either.
I've had laser eye surgery and I don't wear glasses any more, so people just go, 'You're not Damien Hirst.' I don't get recognized on the street.
Painting is so poetic, while sculpture is more logical and scientific and makes you worry about gravity.
Commercials are so contemporary and up to date that when you're involved in that visual world, you can't really go backwards.
I just wanted to find out where the boundaries were. So far I've found there aren't any. I just wanted to be stopped, and no one will stop me.
Buy art, build a museum, put your name on it, let people in for free. That's as close as you can get to immortality ...
That's the great thing about art. Anybody can do it if you just believe. With practice, you can make great paintings.
I realised that you couldn't use the tools of yesterday to communicate today's world. Basically, that was the big light that went on in my head.
A painting probably is the most shocking increase in value, from what it costs to make to what you sell it for.
My Mum brought me up to believe that if you look after the pennies then the pounds look after themselves, and I could never do it.