Best 92 quotes of Damien Hirst on MyQuotes

Damien Hirst

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    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.

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    Damien Hirst

    A painting probably is the most shocking increase in value, from what it costs to make to what you sell it for.

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    Damien Hirst

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

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    Damien Hirst

    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 it down.

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    Damien Hirst

    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.

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    Damien Hirst

    As a father, I would say I am more like a mother. I do a lot of hugging.

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    Damien Hirst

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

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    Damien Hirst

    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.

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    Damien Hirst

    As soon as something becomes art I think you get over the fear

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    Damien Hirst

    Because it's visual art, a lot of it comes from childhood experience but then a lot comes from the visual language - in advertising and stuff like that - which is around us.

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    Damien Hirst

    Being best is a false goal, you have to measure success on your own terms.

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    Damien Hirst

    But for me, from my point of view, I don't mind if it falls over... if you break the glass you replace the glass, if the sheep falls out you can always get a new sheep.

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    Damien Hirst

    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.

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    Damien Hirst

    But I could never make a judgement that something was obscene.

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    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.

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    Damien Hirst

    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.

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    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.

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    Damien Hirst

    But then architects don't build their own houses.

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    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.

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    Damien Hirst

    Buy art, build a museum, put your name on it, let people in for free. That's as close as you can get to immortality.

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    Damien Hirst

    Commercials are so contemporary and up to date that when you're involved in that visual world, you can't really go backwards.

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    Damien Hirst

    Death's just something that inspires me, not something that pulls me down. I used to get called morbid at school. I have always loved horror films; I like being frightened.

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    Damien Hirst

    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.

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    Damien Hirst

    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.

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    Damien Hirst

    For me, art is always a kind of theater.

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    Damien Hirst

    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.

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    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.

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    Damien Hirst

    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.

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    Damien Hirst

    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.

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    Damien Hirst

    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.

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    Damien Hirst

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

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    Damien Hirst

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

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    Damien Hirst

    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.

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    Damien Hirst

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

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    Damien Hirst

    I definitely think about death. And every day your relationship with death changes. And every day I sort of feel like I know it more. I've always thought about it.

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    Damien Hirst

    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 after them all in the space.

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    Damien Hirst

    I did a load of medicine cabinets a long time ago and I named them after Sex Pistols songs. I suppose I must be getting old if I'm naming work after Philip Larkin poems.

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    Damien Hirst

    I don't really have a career plan.

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    Damien Hirst

    I don't think I'd want my pet in formaldehyde, but I guess in America they would.

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    Damien Hirst

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

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    Damien Hirst

    I have titles floating around in my head; I have sculptures floating around in my head. It's like a collage.

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    Damien Hirst

    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.

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    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.

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    Damien Hirst

    I liked The Beatles a lot when I was growing up.

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    Damien Hirst

    I like the confusion you get between science and religion … that’s where belief lies and art as well.

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    Damien Hirst

    I love art. It is uplifting.

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    Damien Hirst

    I love color. I feel it inside me. It gives me a buzz.

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    Damien Hirst

    I'm 43. I'm not ready to sit down in a chair with my name on it yet.

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    Damien Hirst

    I mean, people listen to music, and they like that, but I think in England, a lot of people don't like contemporary art.

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    Damien Hirst

    Immortality is really desirable, I guess. In terms of images, anyway.