97 Graffiti Artist Quotes

Following is our list of graffiti artist quotations and slogans full of insightful wisdom and perspective about graffiti.

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Famous Graffiti Artist Quotes

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

Graffiti is beautiful; like a brick in the face of a cop. - Hunter S. Thompson

Graffiti is beautiful; like a brick in the face of a cop. — Hunter S. Thompson

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

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

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

Graffiti is a pathetic attempt at anonymous recognition. - Randall Dale Adams

Graffiti is a pathetic attempt at anonymous recognition. — Randall Dale Adams

If Graffiti is art and art is a crime then how come piccaso never done time? - Melvin Glover

If Graffiti is art and art is a crime then how come piccaso never done time? — Melvin Glover

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. 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

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

It's strange with graffiti. You put a lot out, but you don't get that much back because not many people know who's doing it. You have your peers of about 10 guys who know you are the one painting. — KAWS

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

Graffiti doesn't exist unless someone got a photo, because it's gone immediately. — Jeffrey Deitch

I've never really considered myself just a street artist. I consider myself a populist. — Shepard Fairey

I am an artist. The track is my canvas, and the car is my brush. — Graham Hill

Short Graffiti Artist Quotes

  • Being an artist means belonging to a unique, exciting gang of outlaws. — Robert Venosa
  • I am also an artist. I have the whole world as my canvas. I paint souls. — Meher Baba
  • Artists are always the Johnny Appleseeds of gentrification. — Scott Hutchins
  • I am an artist at living - my work of art is my life. — D.T. Suzuki
  • An artist is a man who says a difficult thing in a simple way — Sayings
  • A painter is a choreographer of space. — Barnett Newman
  • An artist is forced by others to paint out of his own free will. — Willem de Kooning
  • Artists are just children who refuse to put down their crayons. — Al Hirschfeld
  • When you can't think of anything else, photograph graffiti, nudes, or plants. — Bill Jay
  • An artist is somebody who produces things that people don't need to have. — Andy Warhol

Graffiti Artist Image Quotes

Graffiti artist quote No artist tolerates reality.
No artist tolerates reality.

Graffiti Art Quotes

Speak softly, but carry a big can of paint. — 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

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

Graffiti artist quote There is nothing more truly artistic than to love people.
There is nothing more truly artistic than to love people.

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

Graffiti artist quote A true artist is not one who is inspired, but one who ispires others.
A true artist is not one who is inspired, but one who ispires others.

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

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

Graffiti Quotes

Everybody's trying to leave their mark on the world. That's why there's graffiti and babies. — Kristen Schaal

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

One piece of graffiti doesn't mean much. Forty pieces of graffiti might mean something... It's all about connecting the dots. — Kim Rossmo

Graffiti artist quote Every artist was first an amateur.
Every artist was first an amateur.

The words of the prophets are written on the subway walls and tenements halls and whispered in the sounds of silence. — Paul Simon

Poetry is eternal graffiti written in the heart of everyone. - Lawrence Ferlinghetti

Poetry is eternal graffiti written in the heart of everyone. — Lawrence Ferlinghetti

Nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent. — Calvin Coolidge

Graffiti artist quote I feel that there is nothing more truly artistic than to love people.
I feel that there is nothing more truly artistic than to love people.

I don't think you should have to pay to look at graffiti. You should only pay if you want to get rid of it. — Banksy

Some people are enraged, and some people are applauding. If there were a mission statement for graffiti, that would be it. — Barry McGee

The mistake that was made in the '70s is we stopped policing the streets, we stopped cleaning the streets, we stopped cleaning the graffiti off buildings, we stopped supporting our cultural institutions and building parks and schools and all those kinds of things. — Michael Bloomberg

Gray hair is God's graffiti. — Bill Cosby

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

Graffiti artist quote Learn the rules like a pro, so you can break them like an artist
Learn the rules like a pro, so you can break them like an artist

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

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

Graffiti artist quote Learn the rules like a pro so you can break them like an artist.
Learn the rules like a pro so you can break them like an artist.

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

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

He who works with his hands and his head and his heart is an artist - Francis of Assisi

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

There is no design without discipline. There is no discipline without intelligence. — Massimo Vignelli

Graphic design will save the world right after rock and roll does. - David Carson

Graphic design will save the world right after rock and roll does. — David Carson

Perfect typography is certainly the most elusive of all arts. Sculpture in stone alone comes near it in obstinacy. — Jan Tschichold

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

Graffiti artist quote No great artist ever sees things as they really are. If he did he would cease to be an artist.
No great artist ever sees things as they really are. If he did he would cease to be an artist.

The most popular typefaces are the easiest to read; their popularity has made them disappear from conscious cognition. It becomes impossible to tell if they are easy to read because they are commonly used, or if they are commonly used because they are easy to read. — Zuzana Licko

You can't do better design with a computer, but you can speed up your work enormously. — Wim Crouwel

Design can be art. Design can be aesthetics. Design is so simple, that's why it is so complicated. — Paul Rand

The life of a designer is a life of fight: fight against the ugliness. — Massimo Vignelli

People Writing About Graffiti Artist

Name Quotes Likes
Read quotes by Banksy

Banksy
quotes on art, graffiti and advertising

124 2005
Read quotes by Jeffrey Deitch

Jeffrey Deitch
quotes on art, life and love

35 315
Read quotes by Hunter S. Thompson

Hunter S. Thompson
quotes on life, death and love

510 5126
Read quotes by Randall Dale Adams

Randall Dale Adams
quotes on justice, freedom and government

16 82
Read quotes by Shepard Fairey

Shepard Fairey
quotes on art, education and government

48 740
Read quotes by Graham Hill

Graham Hill
quotes on education, life and culture

12 118

More Graffiti Artist Quotes

I want to make the world a better place, for women, mainly. — Clare Balding

I started off as a graffiti artist in the South Bronx. My tag name was 'Loco' because I would go crazy and tag anywhere I wanted, in the weirdest places. — Swizz Beatz

The grumpier you are, the more assholes you meet. — Banksy

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

I used to tell everyone I met to be an artist..... I don't do that any more. — Banksy

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

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

But there's no way round it-commercial success is a mark of failure for a graffiti artist. We're not supposed to be embraced in that way. When you look at how society rewards so many of the wrong people, it's hard not to view financial reimbursement as a badge of self-serving mediocrity. — Banksy

Take two paintings by the same artist, one has a signature and the other doesn't. The signed picture is generally more valuable. The signature is almost graffiti or a tagging system, yet it can become more important than the subject. — Gavin Turk

Traditional graffiti writers have a bunch of rules they like to stick to, and good luck to them, but I didn't become a graffiti artist so I could have somebody else tell me what to do. If you're the type who gets sentimental about people scribbling over your stuff, I suggest graffiti is probably not the right hobby for you. — Banksy

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

Law breaking, graffiti artist, dumb jock that I am, I'm pretty socially conscious. — Duff Goldman

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

Hip-hop is a competition culture. It's based around, "My DJ is better than you. My graffiti artist is better than you." — Ice T

This book blew me away. Kelly Parra writes with the keen eye of an artist. Graffiti Girl is warm, gutsy, and true-to-life - an unflinching, honest portrayal of young adults. A seamless and impressive debut. — Anne Frasier

Violence has been a necessary component of every serious liberation struggle...Violence is not the only path to liberation, but likely an indispensable one...the Press Office would like to be clear on this matter: we support all the liberationists ­ from the graffiti artists and ALF liberator to the Animal Rights Militia, Justice Department and Revolutionary Cells. — Jerry Vlasak

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