44 Best Graffiti Quotes in Words Images and Colorful Graffiti Art

We’ve all seen graffiti at one time or another. It often depends on the neighborhood, but not always. Graffiti quotes are sometimes the sayings written on walls or other surfaces. They may be within an image or just by themselves. Graffiti quotes are also written quotes about graffiti.

What is Graffiti? According to Dictionary.com graffiti is:

graffiti [ gruh-fee-tee ]

noun
plural of graffito.
(used with a plural verb) markings, as initials, slogans, or drawings, written, spray-painted, or sketched on a sidewalk, wall of a building or public restroom, or the like: These graffiti are evidence of the neighborhood’s decline.
(used with a singular verb) such markings as a whole or as constituting a particular group: Not much graffiti appears around here these days.

pl n singular -to (-təʊ)
(sometimes with singular verb) drawings, messages, etc, often obscene, scribbled on the walls of public lavatories, advertising posters, etc
archaeol inscriptions or drawings scratched or carved onto a surface, esp rock or pottery

 

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

 

According to Wikipedia :

Graffiti (both singular and plural; is writing or drawings made on a wall or other surface, usually as a form of artistic expression, without permission and within public view. Graffiti ranges from simple written words to elaborate wall paintings, and has existed since ancient times, with examples dating back to ancient Egypt, ancient Greece, and the Roman Empire.

 

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Graffiti: Art or vandalism?

by CBS Sunday Morning
Published on Youtube on Mar 30, 2014

When people hear the word graffiti, many no doubt think of vandalism, but these days a growing number of enthusiasts are calling it art. Rita Braver tours a N.Y. museum exhibit of graffiti, some of which is worth upwards of $100,000.

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“Look at the blogosphere – the biggest lavatory wall in the universe, a palimpsest of graffiti and execration.”
― A.C. Grayling
 

 

Mostly Short Quotes about Graffiti and some Crazy Graffiti Images

1. “My graffiti really comes more from a May ’68, sort of Situationist vibe than the hip-hop world. I think a real graffiti artist would find me a poser.”
― Mike Mills

2. “I grew up around New York, graffiti culture.”
― Adrien Brody

3. “I’m a painter. I was a graffiti artist, and I painted all over the world.”
― Olivier Megaton

4. “Graffiti is linear, and it’s done with a pencil, and it’s like writing on walls.”
― Cy Twombly

5. “I hate graffiti. It’s not yours – don’t draw on it! Is it that hard to comprehend?”
― Chad Michael Murray

6. “Gray hair is God’s graffiti.”
― Bill Cosby

7. “Law breaking, graffiti artist, dumb jock that I am, I’m pretty socially conscious.”
― Duff Goldman

8. “A tattoo is graffiti on the temple of the body.”
― Gordon B. Hinckley

9. “Graffiti art brings you back to your human skills – your spirit and what your being is really about.”
― KRS-One

10. “I know about hip-hop culture, whether it’s graffiti writing or DJ-ing or being an MC.”
― Josh Peck

11. “After pop art, graffiti is probably the biggest art movement in recent history to have such an impact on culture.”
― Jeffrey Deitch

12. “When I was 12, I decided to become a musician. ‘Physical Graffiti’ was the first album I ever owned.”
― Jeff Buckley

13. “The parts of graffiti I like are really antagonizing still – it’s not something that a museum would really embrace.”
― Barry McGee

“14. ‘American Graffiti’ was unpleasant because of the fact that there was no money, no time, and I was compromising myself to death.”
― George Lucas

15. “I’ve heard my work called ‘bold’ and ‘graffiti-like,’ but for me it is always instinctual. I start with a shape or a colour and go from there.”
― Paloma Picasso

16. “Graffiti writers were the most interesting people in hip hop. They were the mad scientists, the mad geniuses, the weird ones.”
― Adam Mansbach

17. “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.”
– Mick Ebeling

18. “When I listen to ‘Workinonit’ or ‘Two Can Win’ or ‘Anti-American Graffiti,’ it takes me to another place and gets me out of my head.”
– Isom Innis

“19. I watched a lot of movies about teenagers, including ‘The Last Picture Show,’ ‘American Graffiti,’ ‘Rumblefish.’ It’s one of my favorite genres.”
– Gia Coppola

20. “People say graffiti is ugly, irresponsible and childish… but that’s only if it’s done properly.”
― Banksy

21. “Graffiti is beautiful; like a brick in the face of a cop.”
― Hunter S. Thompson

22. “If it takes more than 5 minutes, its not graffiti.”
― Mint Serf

23. “I laugh at the way some people think graffiti is all selfish tagging and vandalism. Thoughtful street art is like good fiction – it speaks out on behalf of everyone, for us all to see.”
― Carla H. Krueger

24. “Graffiti, citizens, is the name for the way capitalists deface their public buildings.”
― Adam Johnson

25. “If today i was a graffiti, i would be one on a train that goes to the South of France.”
― Alain Bremond-Torrent

26. “Everybody’s trying to leave their mark on the world. That’s why there’s graffiti and babies.”
― Kristen Schaal

27. “Graffiti doesn’t exist unless someone got a photo, because it’s gone immediately.”
― Jeffrey Deitch

28. “Graffiti is one of the few tools you have if you have almost nothing.”
― Banksy

29. “Some people are enraged, and some people are applauding. If there were a mission statement for graffiti, that would be it.”
― Barry McGee

30. “If Graffiti is art and art is a crime then how come piccaso never done time?”
― Melvin Glover

31. “Graffiti is a pathetic attempt at anonymous recognition.”
― Randall Dale Adams

 

 

32. “Poetry is eternal graffiti written in the heart of everyone.”
― Lawrence Ferlinghetti

33. “When you can’t think of anything else, photograph graffiti, nudes, or plants.”
― Bill Jay

34. “I didn’t have much of a life in crime as a graffiti writer.”
― Ryan McGinley

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

36. “A digital sound sample in angry rap doesn’t correspond to the graffiti but the wall.”
― Jaron Lanier

37. “I don’t think you should have to pay to look at graffiti. You should only pay if you want to get rid of it.”
― Banksy

38. “His achievements read like the graffiti on the walls of a hangman’s changing room.”
― Jonathan Larson

39. “All graffiti is low-level dissent, but stencils have an extra history. They’ve been used to start revolutions and to stop wars.”
― Banksy

40. “I am writing graffiti on your body. I am drawing the story of how hard we tried.”
― DiFranco

41. “Hip-hop is a competition culture. It’s based around, “My DJ is better than you. My graffiti artist is better than you.”
― Ice T

42. “When absolutes are abandoned for principles, the U.S. Constitution becomes a blank slate for anyone’s graffiti.”
― Wayne LaPierre

43. “I find it easy to spot a depressive. The illness is scrawled across them like graffiti.”
― Sally Brampton

44. ““the people who run our cities dont understand graffiti because they think nothing has the right to exist unless it makes a profit…
the people who truly deface our neighborhoods are the companies that scrawl giant slogans across buildings and buses trying to make us feel inadequate unless we buy their stuff….”
― Banksy
 

 

Which one of these graffiti quotes did you like the most?
Which of these graffiti images appeals to you the most?
Let us know in the comments below.