Damien Hirst

“I gave up painting by 16. I secretly thought I would have been Rembrandt by then.”

“I think I like big issues, but I don't believe in God or religion.”

“I 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.”

“I like the confusion you get between science and religion … that’s where belief lies and art as well.”

“A 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.”

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

“Great 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.”

“Painting is so poetic, while sculpture is more logical and scientific and makes you worry about gravity.”

“There's no possible way you can get what you want.”

“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.”

“The idea of going on tour for the rest of my life with old works is not that exciting. As an artist I definitely think the work in future is going to be better than the work in the past, otherwise why do it?”

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

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

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

“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.”

“People don't like contemporary art, but all art starts life as contemporary - I can't really see a difference.”

“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 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.”