Quotes By Damien Hirst

Picasso, Michelangelo, possibly, might be verging on genius, but I don't think a painter like Rembrandt is a genius.

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.

Artists are like everybody else.

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.

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.

Being best is a false goal, you have to measure success on your own terms.

The idea of being a painter, I've always thought, is better than being an artist or a sculptor.

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.

I think suicide is the most perfect thing you can do in life.

For me, art is always a kind of theater.

I made one untitled piece.

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.

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!

I always ignore money.

In an artwork you're always looking for artistic decisions, so an ashtray is perfect. An ashtray has got life and death.

Immortality is really desirable, I guess. In terms of images, anyway.

No, I don't believe in genius. I believe in freedom. I think anyone can do it. Anyone can be like Rembrandt.

I'm 43. I'm not ready to sit down in a chair with my name on it yet.

As a father, I would say I am more like a mother. I do a lot of hugging.

So smoking is the perfect way to commit suicide without actually dying. I smoke because it's bad, it's really simple.

A painting probably is the most shocking increase in value, from what it costs to make to what you sell it for.

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.

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.

I always feel like the art's there and I just see it, so it's not really a lot of work.