Quotes from Grayson Perry

I haven't been to Oxbridge. I haven't even been to a London art school. My qualifications are pretty meagre for such a brief, but I just trust in my sense of what I'm interested in and my mission of clarity.

I operate on anger quite a lot. Its what gets me up in the morning to make art quite often. Well, irritation at least.

Im quite self-serving so, while going round a degree show, what I really want to find out is whats going on in the world today, particularly as technology has widened the chasm between generations.

There are some very unsavoury aspects of art dealing that go with the unregulated nature of the market but its all part of the glamour. Glamour always has an unsavoury edge. I dont want to come across as preachy.

Anything can be art but very little is good art.

I was in therapy for six years and then stopped. You get hardwired at adolescence, like a caterpillar that pupates and re-assembles itself as an insect. It's very hard to change after that.

I've got a pot in my studio that is just a bitter rant against the art world. I call it my Dorian Gray.

Drawing will never go out of date because, you know, you've still got to have the imaginative thought. You've got to react to the world in the present and do a drawing.

I realised that identity always seemed to be an issue when it was challenged - thats when it seemed to be most in 3D, so that you could look at it.

As human beings, we are addicted to novelty. Part of being stylish is surprisingness. Part of being an artist is surprisingness. If there are ingredients of beauty, it certainly is one of them. Surprise is like a spice on the meal, it makes you say: 'woo'.

I like skateboarding because it's backyard danger. You don't need to go on an alpine holiday to get thrills.

I tick so many boxes. Thats why I get a lot of gigs - because I can do the lectures, I can do the television thing, and I dress up, and by the way, Im an artist as well.

If Id had a happy childhood I definitely wouldnt have become the person I am - although a bad childhood isnt a recipe for being a creative person. There are many people in the arts who come from perfectly happy, middle-class homes.

Many office workers loathe dress-down Fridays because they can no longer hide behind a suit. They might have to expose something of their messy selves through their 'casual' clothes.

Some people will have working-class, front-room grandma taste that is better than other people's. I went to stately homes that are a bit duff, and stately homes that were absolutely eye-popping.

Im interested in those things that hover in our unconsciousnesses - class, gender, identity - until we have to think about them for whatever reason. So normal is whatevers normal for you, until its not.

If you act as if you love someone and care about them, then before long you do care and you do love them.

We live in a media saturated world. I'm sure artists of the past would have dealt with it in just the same way. If you're in the business of communication and images, then if you ignore the media-sphere you're just cutting off your own foot. It's just daft.

I think sometimes in the art world theres an implication that you need an entry-level education to walk through the door of a gallery. But you dont. The learning experience actually happens once youre in the gallery.

Self-consciousness is almost the biggest thing you have to deal with as an artist. That's why many artists crash and burn, because they can't handle the attention and the financial implications of every brushstroke.

My tapestries are woven on a computer-controlled loom. I design them on Photoshop. I recently did some digitally-routed woodcuts because I wanted the woodcut look, but I didn't want to get the chisels out.

In the art world, originality is seen as a precious commodity and its increasingly difficult to get because the territory of art is so trampled.

I dont care how Ill be remembered after death. For all I know people will put all my work in a skip the next day.

If you stick to your dream script, you will have a boring and meaningless life.