Everybody's trying to leave their mark on the world. That's why there's graffiti and babies. — Kristen Schaal
If Graffiti is art and art is a crime then how come piccaso never done time? — Melvin Glover
People say graffiti is ugly, irresponsible and childish... but that's only if it's done properly. — Banksy
You're a work of art. Not everyone will understand you, but the ones who do, will never forget about you.
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. — Banksy
Speak softly, but carry a big can of paint. — Banksy
After pop art, graffiti is probably the biggest art movement in recent history to have such an impact on culture. — Jeffrey Deitch
The art of knowing is knowing what to ignore.
Graffiti doesn't exist unless someone got a photo, because it's gone immediately. — Jeffrey Deitch
Bursts of gold on lavender melting into saffron. It's the time of day when the sky looks like it has been spray-painted by a graffiti artist. — Mia Kirshner
Graffiti is one of the few tools you have if you have almost nothing. — Banksy
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. — Banksy
Graffiti Artist Quotes
Writing graffiti is about the most honest way you can be an artist. It takes no money to do it, you don't need an education to understand it, and there's no admission fee. — Banksy
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. — Banksy
A lot of mothers will do anything for their children, except let them be themselves. — Banksy
Youth is the gift of nature, but age is a work of art.
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. — Banksy
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. — Banksy
I've never really considered myself just a street artist. I consider myself a populist. — Shepard Fairey
There is nothing more truly artistic than to love people.
Graffiti is like building a career. And there is a dialogue with the other artists out there mostly fellow writers because a lot of people who don't paint just see a blur when they look at it. — KAWS
Become good at cheating and you never need to become good at anything else. — Banksy
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. — Banksy
Nothing in the world is more common than unsuccessful people with talent, leave the house before you find something worth staying in for. — Banksy
Street Art Quotes
You don't make a photograph just with a camera. You bring to the act of photography all the pictures you have seen, the books you have read, the music you have heard, the people you have loved. — Ansel Adams
Which of my photographs is my favorite? The one I'm going to take tomorrow. — Imogen Cunningham
Art must not be concentrated in dead shrines called museums. lt must be spread everywhere – on the streets, in the trams, factories, workshops, and in the workers' homes. — Vladimir Mayakovsky
There are four basic human needs; food, sleep, sex and revenge. — Banksy
A wall is a very big weapon. It's one of the nastiest things you can hit someone with. — Banksy
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. — Shepard Fairey
I am for an art that tells you the time of day, or where such and such a street is. I am for an art that helps old ladies across the street. — Claes Oldenburg
I believe that street photography is central to the issue of photography—that it is purely photographic, whereas the other genres, such as landscape and portrait photography, are a little more applied, more mixed in the with the history of painting and other art forms. — Joel Meyerowitz
Think outside the box, collapse the box, and take a f**king sharp knife to it. — Banksy
A certain administration which I won't call by name took the arts out of the schools, and that left the brothers out on the street with nothing, so they went to the turntables and started rhyming. Then they had a way to express themselves, and that's the birth of hip-hop. — Isaac Hayes
Graphic Art Quotes
He who works with his hands and his head and his heart is an artist — Francis of Assisi
The life of a designer is a life of fight. Fight against the ugliness. Just like a doctor fights against disease. For us, the visual disease is what we have around, and what we try to do is cure it somehow with design. — Massimo Vignelli
Perfect typography is certainly the most elusive of all arts. Sculpture in stone alone comes near it in obstinacy. — Jan Tschichold
Creating is about sharing ideas, sharing aesthetics, sharing what you believe in with other people. — Shepard Fairey
The art of any propagandist and agitator consists in his ability to find the best means of influencing any given audience, by presenting a definite truth, in such a way as to make it most convincing, most easy to digest, most graphic, and most strongly impressive. — Vladimir Lenin
The artist constructs a new symbol with his brush. This symbol is not a recognizable form of anything which is already finished, already made, already existing in the world - it is a symbol of a new world, which is being built upon and which exists by way of people. — El Lissitzky
The observer must learn to look at the picture as a graphic representation of a mood and not as a representation of objects. — Wassily Kandinsky
Design can be art. Design can be aesthetics. Design is so simple, that's why it is so complicated. — Paul Rand
You can have an art experience in front of a Rembrandt... or in front of a piece of graphic design. — Stefan Sagmeister
The wonders of the Grand Canyon cannot be adequately represented in symbols of speech, nor by speech itself. The resources of the graphic art are taxed beyond their powers in attempting to portray its features. Language and illustration combined must fail. — John Wesley Powell
More Graffiti Art Quotes
If Graffiti is art and art is a crime then how come piccaso never done time? — Melvin Glover
People say graffiti is ugly, irresponsible and childish... but that's only if it's done properly. — Banksy
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. — Banksy
Speak softly, but carry a big can of paint. — Banksy
After pop art, graffiti is probably the biggest art movement in recent history to have such an impact on culture. — Jeffrey Deitch
Graffiti is one of the few tools you have if you have almost nothing. — Banksy
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. — Banksy
Graffiti writers will never stop. They'll just evolve. It's interesting what ideas people come up with and how it all extends forward. — Ben Eine
There are four basic human needs; food, sleep, sex and revenge. — Banksy
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. — Banksy
A wall is a very big weapon. It's one of the nastiest things you can hit someone with. — Banksy
A lot of mothers will do anything for their children, except let them be themselves. — Banksy
The way I make art, the way a lot of people make art, is as an extension of language and communication, where references are incredibly important. — Shepard Fairey
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. — Banksy
Is graffiti art or vandalism? That word has a lot of negative connotations and it alienates people, so no, I don't like to use the word 'art' at all. — Banksy
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. — Banksy
Become good at cheating and you never need to become good at anything else. — Banksy
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. — Banksy
HIP-HOP HAS DIFFERENT ELEMENTS DEALING WITH MUSIC, RAP, GRAFFITI ART, B-BOYS (WHAT YOU CALL BREAK BOYS)... AND ALSO DEALING WITH CULTURE, AND A WHOLE MOVEMENT DEALING WITH WISDOM AND UNDERSTANDING, AS WELL AS PEACE UNITY AND FUN. — Afrika Bambaataa
Graffiti ultimately wins out over proper art because it becomes part of your city, it' s a tool; "I'll meet you in that pub, you know, the one opposite that wall with a picture of a monkey holding a chainsaw". I mean, how much more useful can a painting be than that? — Banksy
Nothing in the world is more common than unsuccessful people with talent, leave the house before you find something worth staying in for. — Banksy
I want to make the world a better place, for women, mainly. — Clare Balding
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. — Banksy
I'm an artist. Gardening is my graffiti. I grow my art. I use the garden soil like it's a piece of cloth, and the plants and the trees, that's my embellishment for that cloth. You'd be surprised what the soil can do if you let it be your canvas. — Ron Finley
My mom is a painter, so I've been doing drawings and paintings as early as I can remember. Then there was this gap where I was doing graffiti in high school and making as much [traditional] art. — Alec Monopoly
People who get up early in the morning cause war, death and famine. — Banksy
It's a very frustrated feeling you get when the only people with good photos of you work are the police department. — Banksy
The art of cartooning is vulgarity. The only reason for cartooning to exist is to be on the edge. If you only take apart what they allow you to take apart, you're Disney. Cartooning is a low-class, for-the-public art, just like graffiti art and rap music. Vulgar but believable, that's the line I kept walking. — Ralph Bakshi
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. — Banksy
I have a company that does design and animation, so obviously graffiti is definitely an intricate part of what we admire and respect in the art world. — Mick Ebeling
Graffiti is something written on a wall, and, of course, art can be exhibited or produced anywhere: a wall is just another venue. — Matthew Slotover
Art shows and the institutions end up being the couriers for culture for the next generation and are an important component as well. It may seem ironic from one perspective, but I think if you look at my overall strategy, it's actually not out of step. — Shepard Fairey
I need someone to protect me from all the measures they take in order to protect me. — Banksy
I did an art show for Donald Trump at his house in Palm Beach, Florida. It was a bunch of pop art and stuff like that, so I wasn't doing any graffiti at that time, so I'd say from about 2000 to 2006, I wasn't doing any graffiti. — Alec Monopoly
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. — Malina Suliman
Rhyme written in graffiti xeroxed on blueprints, students influenced are now a nuisance. — Louis Eric Barrier
Graffiti's always been a temporary art form. You make your mark and then they scrub it off. — Banksy
Should graffiti be judged on the same level as modern art? Of course not: It's way more important than that. — Banksy
To me, that's the biggest problem with hip-hop today is the fact that everyone believes that all of hip-hop is rap music, and that, when you say "hip-hop," it's synonymous with rap. That when you say "hip-hop," you should be thinking about breakdancing, graffiti art, or MCing - which is the proper name for rap - DJing, beat-boxing, language, fashion, knowledge, trade. You should be thinking about a culture when you say, "hip-hop.". — KRS-One
Obviously my own work comes from a conceptual art tradition, but I love the graffiti artists, and I feel spiritually closer to them than to most contemporary art; they make the city a free space of diverse voices and we shouldn't get all cynical about them just because Banksy made some money. I collaborate sometimes with Krae, who is an old school east London graffiti writer. — Robert Montgomery
In Conclusion
Which quotation resonated with you best? Did you enjoy our collection of graffiti art quotes? Or may be you have a slogan about graffiti art to suggest. Let us know using our contact form.
Citation
Feel free to cite and use any of the quotes in this collection of graffiti art quotations. For popular citation styles(APA, Chicago, MLA), please use this citation page.
