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" I was a really lousy artist as a kid. Too abstract expressionist; or I'd draw a big ram's head, really messy. I'd never win painting contests. I remember losing to a guy who did a perfect Spiderman. "

Jean-Michel Basquiat

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" I have done only two portraits: one of the artist Francesco Clemente and another of Andy Warhol. "

" Occasionally, when I get mad at a woman, I'll do some great, awful painting about her. "

" The black person is the protagonist in most of my paintings. I realized that I didn't see many paintings with black people in them. "

" The country makes me more paranoid, you know? I think the crazy people out there are little crazier. "

Jean-Michel Basquiat

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Know

" Since I was seventeen I thought I might be a star. I'd think about all my heroes, Charlie Parker, Jimi Hendrix... I had a romantic feeling about how these people became famous. "

" I like kids' work more than work by real artists any day. "

Jean-Michel Basquiat

Kids

" Believe it or not, I can actually draw. "

" If I'm away from painting for a week, I get bored. "

" I don't think about art when I'm working. I try to think about life. "

" I wanted to be a cartoonist when I was young. "

" I had very few friends. There was nobody I could trust. I left home when I was fifteen. I lived in Washington Square Park. "

" I wanted to build up a name for myself. "

Jean-Michel Basquiat

Myself

Name

" For a while, I was drawing on good paper, but now I've gone back to the bad stuff. I put matte medium on it. If you put matte medium on it, it seals up, so it doesn't really matter. "

" I am not a black artist, I am an artist. "

Jean-Michel Basquiat

I Am

Black

" There are about 30 words around you all the time, like 'thread' or 'exit.' "

Jean-Michel Basquiat

You

Words

" I start a picture and I finish it. "

" I want to make paintings that look as if they were made by a child. "

" I don't listen to what art critics say. I don't know anybody who needs a critic to find out what art is. "

" I thought I was going to be a bum the rest of my life. "

" My favorite Twombly is 'Apollo and the Artist,' with the big 'Apollo' written across it. "

" Medicine men live in caves. "

" I played a guitar with a file, and a synthesizer. "

" I had some money, I made the best paintings ever. I was completely reclusive, worked a lot, took a lot of drugs. I was awful to people. "

" I was a cute kid. "

Jean-Michel Basquiat

Kid

Cute

" I wanted to be a star, not a gallery mascot. "

" Charles Saatchi has never liked my work at all. "

" I'm not a real person. I'm a legend. "

" The more I paint the more I like everything. "

Jean-Michel Basquiat

Everything