267
just pissed all over yourself. It doesn’t matter how big your brothers are when drunk geezers walk past and see
that”.
Nota de rodapé 262 – “Actually, […] graffiti is by definition rather proscriptive. Most councils are committed to
removing offensive graffiti within 24 hours, anything racist, sexist or homophobic, they will send out a team within
24 hours. But somehow if it’s ‘art’ in a gallery, the boundaries of taste aren’t so rigidly defined”.
Nota de rodapé 268 – “Does he ever see himself becoming part of the art establishment? ‘I don’t know. I
wouldn’t sell shit to Charles Saatchi. If I sell 55,000 books [he has published two, Existencilism and Banging Your
Head Against a Brick Wall] and however many screen prints, I don’t need one man to tell me I’m an artist. It’s
hugely different if people buy it, rather than one fucking Tory punter does. No, I’d never knowingly sell anything to
him’”.
Nota de rodapé 269 – “Please note: none of the merchandise on sale here has been produced or endorsed by
Banksy (with the exception of this sign)”.
Nota de rodapé 270 – “I don't agree with auction houses selling street art - its undemocratic, it glorifies greed and
I never see any of the money. […] None of the print and painting exhibitions in proper art galleries are anything to
do with me, it's all stuff they bought previously. I only ever mount shows in warehouses or war zones or places full
of live animals (I’m aware the pictures don’t stand up on their own)”.
Nota de rodapé 292 – “I never go to the openings of my shows, and I don’t read chat rooms or go on MySpace.
All I know about what people think of my gear is what a couple of my friends tell me, and one of them always
wants to borrow money, so I’m not sure how reliable he is. I think there’s a lot to be said for the fine line between
secondguessing yourself and respecting a dialogue with people whose opinions you trust, or even people that are
great because they don’t know shit about art and you get the most honest reaction from them. Because so many
artists, they worry about what trends are happening in art and design and street art, they read too many
magazines, and they are too wrapped up in everything; they’re paralyzed”.
Nota de rodapé 298 – “‘They still don’t know what I do’. Really, I say, they have no sense of how much you’ve
achieved? ‘No’, he says tenderly. ‘They think I’m a painter and decorator’”.
Nota de rodapé 299 – “Steve doesn’t look like an agent. Actually, he says, he is Banksy’s friend and takes
photos for him. […] Banksy is white, 28, scruffy casual – jeans, T-shirt, a silver tooth, silver chain and silver
earring. […] As he talks, it strikes me that he may not be who he says he is. How do I know you are Banksy? ‘You
have no guarantee of that whatsoever’. But he seems too passionate about his work not to be. What is his real
name? ‘Pass! You must be kidding’”.
Nota de rodapé 301 – “Yeah, it’s all part of the job description. Any idiot can get caught. The art to it is not getting
picked up for it […] The feeling you get when you sit home on the sofa at the end of that, having a fag and
thinking there’s no way they’re going to rumble me, it’s amazing… better than sex, better than drugs, the buzz”.
Nota de rodapé 306 – "I felt the spirit of Christmas was being lost, […] it was becoming increasingly
uncommercialised and more and more to do with religion so we decided to open our own shop and sell pointless
stuff you didn't need."
Nota de rodapé 307 – “I will say this: I get support from people I would least expect, and hate from people who I
considered to be on my side. When someone buys my work they know that they’re indirectly funding street
damage, and you’d be surprised who’s cool with that”.
Nota de rodapé 314 – “Rats are called rats because they’ll do anything to survive”.
Nota de rodapé 316 – “They exist without permission. They are hated, hunted and persecuted. They live in quiet
desperation amongst the filth. And yet they are capable of bringing entire civilsations to their knees. If you are
dirty, insignificant and unloved then rats are the ultimate role model. […] I’d been painting rats for three years
before someone said ‘that’s clever it’s an anagram of art’ and I had to pretend I’d known that all along. […] You
can win the rat race but you’re still a rat. The human race is an unfair and stupid competition. A lot of the runners
don’t even get decent sneakers or clean drinking water. Some runners are born with a massive head start, every
possible help along the way and still the referees seem to be on their side. It’s not surprising a lot of people have
given up competing altogether and gone to sit in the grandstand, eat junk food and shout abuse. What we need in
this race is a lot more streakers”.
Nota de rodapé 317 – “I made the mistake of painting a rat on the front of a small jewellry shop once. It turned
out the guy was a big time fence for all kinds of shit. He told the neighbours he had been marked as a grass by
some family he’d never heard of and both his sons were out trying to find them and clear things up. Everyone
seemed to find this very funny”.
Nota de rodapé 332 – “Nothing in the world is more common than unsuccessful people with talent, leave the
house before you find something worth staying in for”.