Quotes by Damien Hirst - Page 3

I have always been aware that you have to get people listening before you can change their minds. Any artist's big fear is being ignored, so if you get debate, that's great.
Damien Hirst / Artist
Art
Change
Inspirational
Smile
Fear
Artist
Being Ignored
Debate
Ignored
Aware
Before
Minds
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Since I was a child, death is definitely something that I think about every day. But I think that everybody does. You try and avoid it, but it's such a big thing that you can't.
Damien Hirst / Artist
Children
Thinking
Trying
Avoid
Big Thing
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I think I've always been afraid of painting, really. Right from the beginning. All my paintings are about painting without a painter. Like a kind of mechanical form of painting.
Damien Hirst / Artist
Painter
Afraid
Beginning
Mechanical
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I used to watch 'Top of the Pops' when I was a kid and say 'Yeah!' or 'Boo!' at every single song. So there was nothing in the middle. You brutally put it on one side or another.
Damien Hirst / Artist
Kids
Pops
Song
Watches
Boo
Brutally
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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 best one to be, because my heroes were Goya and Francis Bacon.
Damien Hirst / Artist
Painter
Profession
Remember When
Best Always Your
Heroes
Bacon
Passport
Francis
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You've really got to get down on the floor with yourself and get low in order to make great art. I think you've just got to accept who you are and do the most unbelievable things.
Damien Hirst / Artist
Art
Order
Thinking
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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. I've arrived at that point in the art world where there really is a chair that you sit in.
Damien Hirst / Artist
Art
Names
World
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I was brought up Catholic, and I felt the power of art from a very young age - seeing the brutality of all those images of flayed apostles and tortured saints was a pretty strong introduction.
Damien Hirst / Artist
Art
Apostles
Catholic
Introduction
Seeing
Strong
Young Age
Brought
Images
Saints
Tortured
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When you've just done it, you're not sure. But when you've sat with it for a couple of hours and you don't want to do anything more to it, that's a great feeling. It can stand on its own two feet.
Damien Hirst / Artist
Couple
Feet
Two
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But it's like the horror of being in a studio with a blank canvas. I used to always run out of ideas because there are so many possibilities and I would just think, well what am I going to do now!
Damien Hirst / Artist
Blank
Blank Canvas
Canvas
Horror
Possibilities
Studio
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Most people live in the city and go to the country at the weekend, and that's posh and aristocratic, but actually to live in the country and come to London when you can't take it any more is different.
Damien Hirst / Artist
Aristocratic
Cities
Country
London
Posh
Weekend
City Country People
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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. It's beauteous. But it's always about hard work and inspiration and sweat and good ideas.
Damien Hirst / Artist
Art
Good Art
Hard Work
Ideas
Inspiration
Struggle
Sweat
Feeling
Work Art Good
Pull
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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 I definitely think the work in future is going to be better than the work in the past, otherwise why do it?
Damien Hirst / Artist
Life Work Future
In The Past
Otherwise
Tour
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Here's one from me: 'You have to be aware that everyone else is thinking far too hard about themselves to be thinking about you, whoever you are.' If you want it, you can have it. Once you know that, you can be free.
Damien Hirst / Artist
Knows
Thinking About You
Want
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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 I did certain things people would look at it, consider it and then say "f off". But after a while you can get away with things.
Damien Hirst / Artist
Art
People
Waiting
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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 money it's easy to just drink your way through it and make great art. But if you're making lots of money it can be very problematic.
Damien Hirst / Artist
Art
Good Times
Way
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When I used to do abstract paintings at school, like everyone else, the tutor said these would make great curtains. I would always neglect the formal stuff that was going on by using colour, because colour kind of came naturally to me.
Damien Hirst / Artist
Abstract
Abstract Painting
Colour
Curtains
Formal
Neglect
School
Stuff
Tutor
Great Always Me
Great Me School
Naturally
Everyone Else
Great Me Always
Paintings
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I just hope that I can be kind of like the Beatles. I really like that kind of model. I like the way that without losing integrity they could change through fashion and not look back at the '60s and vomit when they saw what they'd done.
Damien Hirst / Artist
Ego
Fashion
Integrity
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It's a great advantage to be able to play people off against each other, isn't it? You go to Christie's and get a quote on something. And then you go to Phillips' and you tell them what Christie's has given you. I like auctions for artists.
Damien Hirst / Artist
Advantage
Given
Great People Something
Artists
Great People Go
Great Advantage
Quote
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I think I've always been afraid of painting, really. Right from the beginning. All my paintings are about painting without a painter. Like a kind of mechanical form of painting. Like finding some imaginary computer painter, or a robot who paints.
Damien Hirst / Artist
Kind
Robots
Thinking
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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 great to look forward as an artist because in the future the possibilities are infinite; you look back and it's all fixed so it's a scary thing.
Damien Hirst / Artist
Fixed
Infinite
Odd
Retrospective
Scary
Future Great Always
Asked
Possibilities
Scary Thing
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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 you can have that as well as a poster on every student's wall, then you're in a very enviable position. I'd like to do a Damien Hirst for £500 at some point.
Damien Hirst / Artist
Millions
Painting
Position
Pounds
Students
Trapped
Wall
Student
Enviable
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You've got to be oblivious to other people, the push and pull of other people's opinions, the way other people measure success. It's then that you realize you are 100 percent who you are and you have to use that who-you-are 100 percent in order to create great things.
Damien Hirst / Artist
Order
People
Use
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You'd never look at a Rembrandt and say, 'That's just wood and canvas and paint - how much?!' It's all about how many people want it. It works on a pair of jeans as well - they're just material and stitching, and as soon as you walk out of the shop, they're worth nothing.
Damien Hirst / Artist
Canvas
Jeans
Paint
Walk Look People
Works
How Many People
Material
Shop
Rembrandt
Soon
Stitching
Wood
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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 with us. A lot of people who come to work for you are artists in their own right. And they want to work for you because they want to pick something up.
Damien Hirst / Artist
Artist
People
Trying
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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 you want it to have deep meanings as well. I'm striving for both. But I hate it when people write things that sound like they've swallowed a f... dictionary.
Damien Hirst / Artist
Artist
Hate
Writing
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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 was always some other feller who was better; so I thought, It cant be about being the best, it has to be about the drawing itself, what you do with it. Thats kind of stuck with me.
Damien Hirst / Artist
Kids
Ambition
Real
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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 was always some other feller who was better; so I thought, 'It can't be about being the best, it has to be about the drawing itself, what you do with it.' That's kind of stuck with me.
Damien Hirst / Artist
Ambition
Being The Best
Class
Drawing
Stuck
Best Always Me
Best Me Better
Best Better Always
Itself
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I was taught to confront things you can't avoid. Death is one of those things. To live in a society where you're trying not to look at it is stupid because looking at death throws us back into life with more vigour and energy. The fact that flowers don't last for ever makes them beautiful.
Damien Hirst / Artist
Death
Society
Beautiful
Energy
Flower
Stupid
Taught
Trying
Because
Life Death Beautiful
Avoid
Back
Those
Them
Flowers
Confront
Ever
Fact
Look
Last
Makes
Throws
Vigour
Where
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For me, art is always a kind of theater. When I started the spot paintings I made them as an endless series. But I was never serious about it being an endless series. It was just an implied endless series. The theater means you just have to make it look good for that moment in the spotlight.
Damien Hirst / Artist
Art
Looks
Mean
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But I always liked the fact that you get these totally unacceptable images, but they're taken by a really expensive photographer, with great light, and in terms of the quality of the photograph it's a great photograph, but in terms of imagery it's unacceptable, and I like that contradiction.
Damien Hirst / Artist
Light
Photography
Taken
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For me, art is always a kind of theater. When I started the spot paintings, I made them as an endless series. But I was never serious about it being an endless series. It was just an implied endless series. The theater means you just have to make it look good for that moment in the spotlight.
Damien Hirst / Artist
Endless
Implied
Art Good Moment
Spot
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Art is the closest you can get to immortality, though it's a poor substitute - you're working for people not yet born - and people want it because it is brilliant. It ends up in museums anyway; the rich have to give it back to the people, it's their only option. There are no pockets in a shroud.
Damien Hirst / Artist
Art
Museums
People
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'Painting like a child' isn't a negative for me... it's something only great artists can really achieve. The childlike quality of some of Picasso's drawings is precisely what makes them so masterful and extraordinary; the ability to express complete visions, feelings and portraits through a continuous line.
Damien Hirst / Artist
Quality
Ability
Achieve
Childlike
Negative
Painting
Portraits
Great Me Quality
Child
Artists
Complete
Continuous
Drawings
Express
Line
Masterful
Picasso
Precisely
Visions
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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 limitless, you're inventing the future. Then you get older and suddenly you have a history. It's fixed. You can't change anything. I find that a bit disturbing, to be honest.
Damien Hirst / Artist
Future
History
Disturbing
Honest
Immortal
Inventing
Invincible
Limitless
Thinking
Young
Change Future History
Anything
Bit
Find
Older
Least
Possibilities
Suddenly
To Be Honest
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To be an artist is not about fame; it's about art, which is this intangible thing that has got to have lots of integrity, whereas being famous doesn't really take any integrity. But I think you have to admit that you want to be famous, otherwise you can't be an artist. Art and fame together are like a desire to live forever.
Damien Hirst / Artist
Art
Integrity
Thinking
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Damien Hirst Quotes - Page 3

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