Damien HirstI love color. I feel it inside me. It gives me a buzz.376Love
Damien HirstI 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 … ▶366Politics
Damien HirstGreat 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. ✨ Damien … ▶377LifeThought
Damien HirstI like the confusion you get between science and religion … that’s where belief lies and art as well.333Philosophy
Damien HirstPicasso, Michelangelo, possibly, might be verging on genius, but I don't think a painter like Rembrandt is a genius. ✨ Damien Hirst: 'Anyone can be Rembrandt'. Int… ▶334SadnessThought
Damien HirstMaking 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 … ▶347PoliticsThought
Damien HirstI 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.336Humor
Damien HirstNever let money get in the way of an idea347Thought
Damien HirstI always feel like the art's there and I just see it, so it's not really a lot of work.271Time
Damien HirstArt comes from everywhere. It's your response to your surroundings.271Truth
Damien HirstI 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.316HumanityThought
Damien HirstI can't understand why most people believe in medicine and don't believe in art, without questioning either.316Humanity
Damien HirstWhen 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 us… ▶317Sadness
Damien HirstI think an ashtray is the most fantastically real thing.328Thought
Damien HirstFor me, art is always a kind of theater. ✨ Interview with Anthony Haden-Guest, www.interviewmagazine.com. November 23, 2008.251Love
Damien HirstAs a father, I would say I am more like a mother. I do a lot of hugging.273Hope
Damien HirstSometimes when you're drunk you can see better.262Time
Damien HirstSo smoking is the perfect way to commit suicide without actually dying. I smoke because it's bad, it's really simple.295Death
Damien HirstIt'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.274Love
Damien HirstImmortality is really desirable, I guess. In terms of images, anyway.3210Death
Damien HirstBut 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.309Humanity
Damien HirstA 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.3110HumanityThoughtTime
Damien HirstIn fact, the first piece of art I ever sold, I paid someone else to make the next one, so I could actually keep going out drinking.222Truth
Damien HirstI 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. … ▶278Thought
Damien HirstPainting is so poetic, while sculpture is more logical and scientific and makes you worry about gravity.289Sadness
Damien HirstMost 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 … ▶278Humanity
Damien HirstI think suicide is the most perfect thing you can do in life.278LifeThought
Damien HirstArtists are like everybody else.2810Thought
Damien HirstI'm 43. I'm not ready to sit down in a chair with my name on it yet. ✨ Interview with Anthony Haden-Guest, www.interviewmagazine.com. November 23, 2008.173Reading
Damien HirstIt's amazing what you can do with an E in A-Level art, a twisted imagination and a chainsaw.239Philosophy
