Barry McGee Quotes

Most people think I do street art, so I do everything for nothing. I'm an urchin who paints walls and does work for nothing. That's the first misconception about street artists, that we just paint for nothing.

Many people decorate their homes with designer graffiti, even though most of them would probably have real graffiti scoured off the walls of their buildings.

The parts of graffiti I like are really antagonizing still - it's not something that a museum would really embrace.

Graffiti's always been a temporary art form. You make your mark and then they scrub it off.

The best art is on the street.

When I got into graffiti, it was the most-exciting art form and it changed the course of my life.

Although you might have to creep about at night and lie to your mum it’s actually one of the more honest art forms available. There is no elitism or hype, it exhibits on the best walls a town has to offer and nobody is put off by the price of admission.

I started off as a graffiti artist in the South Bronx. My tag name was 'Loco' because I would go crazy and tag anywhere I wanted, in the weirdest places.

I have a company that does design and animation, so obviously graffiti is definitely an intricate part of what we admire and respect in the art world.

Graffiti is linear, and it's done with a pencil, and it's like writing on walls.

Should graffiti be judged on the same level as modern art? Of course not: It's way more important than that.

I grew up around New York, graffiti culture.

In certain places around the world, street art is widely accepted and it is part of the urban environment.

One of the interesting things about skateboarding and graffiti is that skateboarding exists in the documentation of an act.

If you don't own a train company then you go and paint on one instead... it all comes from that thing at school when you had to have name tags in the back of something... that makes it belong to you. You can own half the city by scribbling your name over it.

I was one of the first post-studio artists. I used to do my works in the streets. I used to find them in the streets, and I used to leave them in the streets.

Remember crime against property is not real crime. People look at an oil painting and admire the use of brushstrokes to convey meaning. People look at a graffiti painting and admire the use of a drainpipe to gain access.

Graffiti is only dangerous in the mind of three types of people; politicians, advertising executives and graffiti writers.

The art that I do is for the people. It is about engaging a new audience who wouldn't necessarily go to art galleries and museums and painting on the street is the best way to do that.

Spraypainting a shop shutter turns an ugly, boring thing into something interesting and colourful. I think you'd have to be a pretty negative person to find fault in it.

Street artists want to add something to the environment. They consider the audience, whereas graffiti writers don't care about anyone except themselves, they do it purely for the kick.

I'm a Banksy fan. I'm also a fan of Chris Hobe, Mister Totem, Drew Wootten, Mad Clout, Hense and Sever, in visual and street art. And Jonathan Mannion and Shane Nash in photography.

Graffiti art brings you back to your human skills - your spirit and what your being is really about.

My work isn't overtly political, although it is sometimes painted in places where I don't have permission to paint, so that could be construed as a political statement.

Street art belongs on the street. But I'm a working street artist and I earn my money selling art in the style of street art via galleries.