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Damien Hirst [1965-0] British

Rank: 101
Artist

Damien Steven Hirst is an English artist, entrepreneur, and art collector. He is the most prominent member of the group known as the Young British Artists, who dominated the art scene in the UK during the 1990s.

Age, Amazing, Art, Change, Death, Fear, Future, History, Imagination, Society

Quote	Tags	Rank
So smoking is the perfect way to commit suicide without actually dying. I smoke because it's bad, it's really simple.		101
Sometimes when you're drunk you can see better.		102
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.		103
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.	Change, Future, History	104
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.		105
'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.		106
I think suicide is the most perfect thing you can do in life.		107
Painting is so poetic, while sculpture is more logical and scientific and makes you worry about gravity.		108
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.	Death, Society	109
It's amazing what you can do with an E in A-Level art, a twisted imagination and a chainsaw.	Amazing, Imagination	110
That's the great thing about art. Anybody can do it if you just believe. With practice, you can make great paintings.		111
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.	Age	112
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.	Fear	113
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.		114
For me, art is always a kind of theater.		115
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.		116
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.		117
Kids are naturally gifted at art from a very young age. The problem is when they get older and become self-conscious. The process should always be fun, though.	Age	118
It's good to have a title that's not just one word. If you're gonna title it, you might as well try and say something.		119
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.		120
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.		121
Museums are for dead artists. I'd never show my work in the Tate. You'd never get me in that place.		122
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.		123
People don't like contemporary art, but all art starts life as contemporary - I can't really see a difference.		124
Being best is a false goal, you have to measure success on your own terms.		125
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.		126
I realised that you couldn't use the tools of yesterday to communicate today's world. Basically, that was the big light that went on in my head.		201
Picasso, Michelangelo, possibly, might be verging on genius, but I don't think a painter like Rembrandt is a genius.		202
The difference between art about death and actual death is that one's a celebration and the other's a dull fact.		203
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.		204
I always feel like the art's there and I just see it, so it's not really a lot of work.		205
I think an ashtray is the most fantastically real thing.		206
I'm 43. I'm not ready to sit down in a chair with my name on it yet.		207
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.		208
You need a big ego to be an artist.		209
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.		210
When it comes to the British monarchy, I prefer to be seduced by an image than presented with a real person. It's kind of a Warhol thing.		211
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.		212
The idea of being a painter, I've always thought, is better than being an artist or a sculptor.		213
People always say that my work is sensational or shocking but there are truly shocking things you could do, and my sculptures don't go anywhere near that.		214
The spot paintings and spin paintings were trying to find mechanical ways to make paintings.		215
Artists are like everybody else.		216
Immortality is really desirable, I guess. In terms of images, anyway.		217
I made one untitled piece.		218
There's no possible way you can get what you want.		219
My Mum brought me up to believe that if you look after the pennies then the pounds look after themselves, and I could never do it.		220
I always ignore money.		221
I used to believe I was going to live forever. And then you suddenly become aware that you're not.		222
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.		223
No, I don't believe in genius. I believe in freedom. I think anyone can do it. Anyone can be like Rembrandt.		224
A painting probably is the most shocking increase in value, from what it costs to make to what you sell it for.		225
As a father, I would say I am more like a mother. I do a lot of hugging.		226
I think art is good at looking back and looking forward. I don't think art is good at looking head-on. At the end of the day, people are more important than paintings.		301
I think money is important for everyone, because the lack of it is so painful.		302
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!		303
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.		304
I had a passport where I wrote 'artist' under 'occupation' and I remember thinking, 'That's it, it's proved!'		305
I've had laser eye surgery and I don't wear glasses any more, so people just go, 'You're not Damien Hirst.' I don't get recognized on the street.		306
I gave up painting by 16. I secretly thought I would have been Rembrandt by then.		307
There was a point I could have just churned out the spot and spin paintings for ever and laughed all the way to the bank.		308
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.		309
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.		310
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.		311
In an artwork you're always looking for artistic decisions, so an ashtray is perfect. An ashtray has got life and death.	Art	312
It's such a crass idea - you're either in love or out of love.		313
Whenever I've been well-known or hitting the press, I've always had to get my credit card out to prove I'm Damien Hirst.		314
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?		315
I think I like big issues, but I don't believe in God or religion.		316
I always look at money not as a motivating factor but as an element in the composition. You can't ignore it, but you've got to be very careful that it's not motivating you.		317
I've spent a long time avoiding painting and dealing with it from a distance. But as I get older, I'm more comfortable with it.		318
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.		319
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.		320

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