Explore Quotes by Damien Hirst

That's the great thing about art. Anybody can do it if you just believe. With practice, you can make great paintings.

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.

It's such a crass idea - you're either in love or out of love.

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.

People don't like contemporary art, but all art starts life as contemporary - I can't really see a difference.

I made one untitled piece.

I think I like big issues, but I don't believe in God or religion.

'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.

Museums are for dead artists. I'd never show my work in the Tate. You'd never get me in that place.

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.

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.

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.

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.

You need a big ego to be an artist.

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.

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

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

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

Never let money get in the way of an idea

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

When we are no longer children, we are already dead.