I think money is important for everyone, because the lack of it is so painful. — Damien Hirst

I always ignore money. — Damien Hirst

I don’t see what else you can spend your money on… If you want to own things, art is a pretty good bet. — Damien Hirst

It’d be nice to make lots of money but it’s quite difficult, because every time I make lots of money I make a bigger piece that costs lots of money. — Damien Hirst

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. — Damien Hirst

I have titles floating around in my head; I have sculptures floating around in my head. It’s like a collage. — Damien Hirst

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. — Damien Hirst

I think art is good at looking back and looking forward. I don’t think art is good at looking head–on. At the end of the day, people are more important than paintings. — Damien Hirst

You need a big ego to be an artist. — Damien Hirst

It’s good to have a title that’s not just one word. If you’re gonna title it, you might as well try and say something. — Damien Hirst

The idea is more important than the object. — Damien Hirst

I liked The Beatles a lot when I was growing up. — Damien Hirst

The teaching of actual painting could be outsourced to China and taught via SKYPE. — John Seed

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

That’s the great thing about art. Anybody can do it if you just believe. With practice, you can make great paintings. — Damien Hirst

I think I’ve always been afraid of painting, really. Right from the beginning. All my paintings are about painting without a painter. Like a kind of mechanical form of painting. — Damien Hirst

You can always tell a great painting, because when you get close there are all these nervous marks. — Damien Hirst

The best spot painting you can have by me is one painted by Rachel. — Damien Hirst

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

I gave up painting by 16. I secretly thought I would have been Rembrandt by then. — Damien Hirst

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

The spot paintings and spin paintings were trying to find mechanical ways to make paintings. — Damien Hirst

The spot paintings, the spin paintings, they’re all a mechanical way to avoid the actual guy in a room, myself, with a blank canvas. — Damien Hirst

There was a point I could have just churned out the spot and spin paintings for ever and laughed all the way to the bank. — Damien Hirst

I can’t wait to get into a position to make really bad art and get away with it. — Damien Hirst

For me, art is always a kind of theater. — Damien Hirst

When it comes to art and culture, I like anything that is good. — John Seed

I mean, people listen to music, and they like that, but I think in England, a lot of people don’t like contemporary art. — Damien Hirst

The difference between art about death and actual death is that one’s a celebration and the other’s a dull fact. — Damien Hirst

Buy art, build a museum, put your name on it, let people in for free. That’s as close as you can get to immortality. — Damien Hirst

Art comes from everywhere. It’s your response to your surroundings. — Damien Hirst

It’s ridiculous what I do. I can’t believe in it–but I have to. — Damien Hirst

No, I don’t believe in genius. I believe in freedom. I think anyone can do it. Anyone can be like Rembrandt. — Damien Hirst

I used to believe I was going to live forever. And then you suddenly become aware that you’re not. — Damien Hirst

My Mum brought me up to believe that if you look after the pennies then the pounds look after themselves, and I could never do it. — Damien Hirst

I can’t understand why most people believe in medicine and don’t believe in art, without questioning either. — Damien Hirst

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

The answer to how to live is to stop thinking about it. — Damien Hirst