218 Quotes by Damien Hirst

I just hope that I can be kind of like the Beatles. I really like that kind of model. I like the way that without losing integrity they could change through fashion and not look back at the ’60s and vomit when they saw what they’d done.

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

When you’ve just done it, you’re not sure. But when you’ve sat with it for a couple of hours and you don’t want to do anything more to it, that’s a great feeling. It can stand on its own two feet.

Whenever I’ve been well-known or hitting the press, I’ve always had to get my credit card out to prove I’m Damien Hirst.

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

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.

I 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.

But I always liked the fact that you get these totally unacceptable images, but they’re taken by a really expensive photographer, with great light, and in terms of the quality of the photograph it’s a great photograph, but in terms of imagery it’s unacceptable, and I like that contradiction.

Commercials are so contemporary and up to date that when you’re involved in that visual world, you can’t really go backwards.