Damien Hirst Quotes

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.

The idea is more important than the object.

It's very easy to say, 'I could have done that,' after someone's done it. But I did it. You didn't. It didn't exist until I did it.

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

You have to step over the boundaries sometimes just to find out where theyare.

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

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.

What I really like is minimum effort for maximum effect.

I think as an artist you have to reinvent yourself every day.

I wanted a shark that's big enough to eat you, and in a large enough amount of liquid so that you could imagine you were in there with it.

I sometimes feel that I have nothing to say and I want to communicate this.

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.

The answer to how to live is to stop thinking about it.

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

For me, art is always a kind of theater.

Sometimes when you're drunk you can see better.

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.

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.

I used to believe I was going to live forever. And then you suddenly become aware that you're not.

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.

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

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

Painting is so poetic, while sculpture is more logical and scientific and makes you worry about gravity.

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.

I don't really have a career plan.