Quotes from Grayson Perry

I'm suspicious when I go to someone's house and everything is beautiful and perfect. Authenticity often means mistakes.

When mobile phones came out, they were a status symbol. Now the status symbol is having someone to manage your mobile phone for you.

As an artist I'm very aware of what I call Picasso-napkin syndrome - I've got this 20th century version of the midas touch, where if I do a little doodle it's worth money!

Often men dont even realise theyre sad. Boys are brought up to unconsciously feel they would be breaking their man contract if they were to cry too much.

Im a maximalist, so Im probably not very elegant. My art is not a coup de grce. Its a war of attrition.

Nothing frustrates me about the art world. It is a lovely place. There are many daft things that amuse me about it though.

Early on, my way of teasing the art world was by playing at being accessible. Like making pottery: I thought people would buy that for Christmas presents.

One of the dangers of male emotionality is that theyre not aware of it churning away beneath them the whole time.

I think that democracy has a lowest common denominator thing going on, so it might be the best of a bad bunch of political systems; but as a way of making art, actually, its not always that great, because it boils everything down.

The preparations for my very first exhibition in 1984 consisted of banging a line of nails in roughly the right place and hanging plates on them. I don't think a tape measure or a spirit level was involved and the whole process took less time than the session in the pub afterwards.

Art is not some fun add-on to life.

I hate to tell this to people but most gods were invented by someone. I'm sorry. It's just that I'm in the present, whereas the famous gods were invented by someone a long time ago.

I have a knack for winning prizes; it must be something Ive done!

You cant be an artist without going to art school. Its impossible. Art schools like being plunged into a sheep dip that inoculates you against cliches. It gives you a sensibility you need to get into the art world.

I think its dangerous when people think theyre being expressive. Yuck. Its like people who say theyre spiritual, innit. You make the work you want to make, and you get on with it and hopefully it connects with other people.

Taste is a phenomenon. Most of taste is unconscious - it comes from your upbringing, from your family, from your society, your gender, your race; it's a melange of all those things.

I was very excited when the Holburne Museum proposed a show of my ceramics from the 80s and early 90s as it would also be an opportunity to find and record the beginnings of my career.

Of course, I worry about being fashionable, although when you're fashionable you're already on the track to being unfashionable.

It's interesting that female artists are underrepresented in exhibitions. That may be down to the fact that the people in power in the art world are men.

Maybe if they didnt tense up, always need to be competitive, always need to be in charge, always need to be the one at the top, men might find that there are benefits from releasing the grip of power.

Fashion is a way to orchestrate the spectacle of ideas. You can get someone who is fashionable but not terribly stylish, and the other way round.

I think people mistakenly get their chaos muddled up with their creativity. Provided you know what your issues are, they're not going to go away.

I've always liked working with an archetypal design, something functional.

I was once judging some prisoner art, and you wouldnt believe the number of eagles and tigers and symbols of freedom and wildness that came up. It was a really strong trope.