Billy Childish
Billy Childish
Billy Childishis an English painter, author, poet, photographer, film maker, singer and guitarist. Since the late 1970s, Childish has been prolific in creating music, writing and visual art. He has led and played in bands including the Pop Rivets, Thee Milkshakes, Thee Headcoats, and the Musicians of the British Empire, primarily working in the genres of garage rock, punk and surf...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth1 December 1959
helping i-can ifs
I don't spend a lot of time working if I can help it.
car people looks
Bowie and McCartney arrived, and the biscuits and caviare started and I left immediately. I don't like shouting across rooms, with people in shiny suits who look like used-car salesmen.
real communication people
People could live very happily without the Turner Prize, but they could not live without real communication and emotion.
margins
I like being on the margins. You work better there.
perfection people trying
I'm not trying to achieve perfection. I don't like this forced control people have over work.
thinking painting unstoppable
I think that the mythology of Van Gogh's life, and the beauty of his paintings, is unstoppable.
jobs sunday dinner
I make sure I make a painting - that's my job. And I cook the Sunday dinner.
cutting men mustache
A moustache to a man is the same as a fringe is to a woman. When you've got it, you want to grow it out; when you've grown it out, you want to cut it.
art book drawing
I liked drawing and painting, because the only failure would be to listen to the doubters who wanted me to stop drawing and painting because 'you aren't going to make a living doing that.' I liked looking in art books at the work of painters.
artist saws ends
It is an artist's duty to be on the wrong end of the see-saw.
artist paint
Artists who don't paint aren't artists.
way fantastic i-can
Failure is fantastic, because you meet yourself and get to know your limitations. This is how I express myself, and I can't do it any other way.
exhibitions want firsts
Before 1999, Tracey Emin and Sarah Lucas offered to get me exhibitions, but joining the Stuckists put a kaibosh on all that - because I wasn't prepared to be controlled. I agreed to co-found the Stuckists to be allowed to say what I wanted, and I left the Stuckists because I didn't really want to be in them in the first place.
war moustache vans
I loved moustaches. I used to draw myself with one. When I was 14, I was really into war and Van Gogh.