Damien Hirst quotes

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)
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. View quote
Damien Hirst
The best spot painting you can have by me is one painted by Rachel. View quote
Damien Hirst
So smoking is the perfect way to commit suicide without actually dying. I smoke because it's bad, it's really simple. View quote
Damien Hirst
In an artwork you're always looking for artistic decisions, so an ashtray is perfect. An ashtray has got life and death. View quote
Damien Hirst
It's amazing what you can do with an E in A-level art, twisted imagination and a chainsaw. View quote
Damien Hirst
I was with this guy who was a plasterer, and at lunchtime he was eating a stuffed heart... I was thinking, "I'm not like these guys. I'm an artist." And I saw a bee come over to some flowers and get all the pollen out. I was looking and thinking, "How does it do that?" And then the guy who was eating the stuffed heart said, "How does that bee do that?" View quote
Damien Hirst
Great art – or good art – is when you look at it, experience it and it stays in your mind. I don't think conceptual art and traditional art are all that different. There's boring conceptual art and there's boring traditional art. Great art is if you can't stop thinking about it, then it becomes a memory. View quote
Damien Hirst
Sometimes when you're drunk you can see better. View quote
Damien Hirst
I think suicide is the most perfect thing you can do in life. View quote
Damien Hirst
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. (Damien Hirst)
It's such a crass idea - you're either in love or out of love. View quote
Damien Hirst
Immortality is really desirable, I guess. In terms of images, anyway. View quote
Damien Hirst
I think an ashtray is the most fantastically real thing. View quote
Damien Hirst
I always ignore money. View quote
Damien Hirst
Artists are like everybody else. View quote
Damien Hirst
A lot of people thought I wasn't doing anything because I was spending a lot of time socialising and going out, but I've always managed to get work actually done. View quote
Damien Hirst
The goal in life is to be solid, whereas the way that life works is totally fluid, so you can never actually achieve that goal. View quote
Damien Hirst
I started taking cocaine and drink ... I turned into a babbling fucking wreck. View quote
Damien Hirst
It's not a coincidence that governments use art on coins and notes. They do this to help us believe in money. Without art, it's hard for us to believe in anything. View quote
Damien Hirst
I always feel like the art's there and I just see it, so it's not really a lot of work. (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. View quote
Damien Hirst
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. View quote
Damien Hirst
But the answer to how to live is to stop thinking about it. And just to live. But you're doing that anyway. However you intellectualise it, you still just live. View quote
Damien Hirst
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. View quote
Damien Hirst