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Artist Quotes by Damien Hirst

51 Artist quotes by Damien Hirst

All Artist quotes Damien Hirst’s page

Hirst says making good art is always a hard struggle, but finishing a piece brings a unique joy. He wants his work to lift the viewer and to spark immediate reactions as well as deeper thoughts. He also notes that painting feels poetic while sculpture follows logic and gravity.

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You need a big ego to be an artist.

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I made one untitled piece.

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I love art. It is uplifting.

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Artists are like everybody else.

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I think as an artist you have to reinvent yourself every day.

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I gave up painting by 16. I secretly thought I would have been Rembrandt by then.

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The idea of being a painter, I've always thought, is better than being an artist or a sculptor.

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As an artist, you don't stop making art because people are not buying it.

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Museums are for dead artists. I'd never show my work in the Tate. You'd never get me in that place.

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I believe all painting and art should be uplifting for the viewer.

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I can’t wait to get into a position to make really bad art and get away with it.

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Art comes from everywhere. It's your response to your surroundings.

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Painting is so poetic, while sculpture is more logical and scientific and makes you worry about gravity.

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I can't understand why most people believe in medicine and don't believe in art, without questioning either.

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Because it's visual art, a lot of it comes from childhood experience but then a lot comes from the visual language -…

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I remember when you used to have your profession on your passport and I always thought that being a painter was the…

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In fact, the first piece of art I ever sold, I paid someone else to make the next one, so I could…

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Making art, good art, is always a struggle. It can make you happy when you pull it off. There's no better feeling.…

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The idea of going on tour for the rest of my life with old works is not that exciting. As an artist…

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In an artwork you're always looking for artistic decisions, so an ashtray is perfect. An ashtray has got life and death.

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As an artist you're looking for universal triggers. You want it both ways. You want it to have an immediate impact, and…

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Even as a kid in drawing class, I had real ambition. I wanted to be the best in the class, but there…

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I've been asked to do a retrospective since I was about 28 and I always thought that was a bit odd. It's…

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Even as a kid in drawing class, I had real ambition. I wanted to be the best in the class, but there…

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I always try to make everyone mellow down, make sure everybody's happy. The people I have employed have always kind of stayed…

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I can't wait to get into a position to make really bad art and get away with it. At the moment if…

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I always feel a bit trapped when a painting goes for millions of pounds and only one person can have it. If…

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For artists it's a lot easier to make art in bad times than it is in good times. When you've got no…

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It's amazing what you can do with an E in A-Level art, a twisted imagination and a chainsaw.

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I always feel like the art's there and I just see it, so it's not really a lot of work.

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The spot paintings and spin paintings were trying to find mechanical ways to make paintings.

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The best spot painting you can have by me is one painted by Rachel.

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You can always tell a great painting, because when you get close there are all these nervous marks.

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I quite like it to be risky. I'm not ready to sit down in a chair with my name on it yet.…

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I have always been aware that you have to get people listening before you can change their minds. Any artist's big fear…

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Great art - or good art - is when you look at it, experience it and it stays in your mind. I…

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I don't see what else you can spend your money on... If you want to own things, art is a pretty good…

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I think art is good at looking back and looking forward. I don't think art is good at looking head-on. At the…

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I had a passport where I wrote 'artist' under 'occupation' and I remember thinking, 'That's it, it's proved!'

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The spot paintings, the spin paintings, they're all a mechanical way to avoid the actual guy in a room, myself, with a…

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More by Damien Hirst

I always look at money not as a motivating factor but as an element in the composition. You can't ignore it, but you've got…

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…

Even as a kid in drawing class, I had real ambition. I wanted to be the best in the class, but there was always…

Since I was a child, death is definitely something that I think about every day. But I think that everybody does. You try and…

But I think it's more that when you're young, you're invincible, you're immortal - or at least you think you are. The possibilities are…

Museums are for dead artists. I'd never show my work in the Tate. You'd never get me in that place.

No, I don't believe in genius. I believe in freedom. I think anyone can do it. Anyone can be like Rembrandt.

Never let money get in the way of an idea

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…

There's no possible way you can get what you want.

I believe all painting and art should be uplifting for the viewer.

If the choice is between buying another building or a Pollock, I'd go for the Pollock every time.

Picasso, Michelangelo, possibly, might be verging on genius, but I don't think a painter like Rembrandt is a genius.

Making art, good art, is always a struggle. It can make you happy when you pull it off. There's no better feeling. It's beauteous.…

So smoking is the perfect way to commit suicide without actually dying. I smoke because it's bad, it's really simple.