BEN EINE

The art that I do is for the people. It is about engaging a new audience who wouldn't necessarily go to art galleries and museums and painting on the street is the best way to do that.

One of the advantages of not going to art school is that you're not taught what you can't do.

I'm not a massive artist by any stretch of the imagination. Yes, I've been in papers and magazines, but you never have any idea if anyone actually reads it or pays any attention.

When I can, I enjoy working with local people to involve everyone in the community in changing their environment.

I don't get paid for what I do in public places. So I invest the money I earn in galleries back into doing the stuff I passionately want to do on the street.

Spraypainting a shop shutter turns an ugly, boring thing into something interesting and colourful. I think you'd have to be a pretty negative person to find fault in it.

When I started working at Pictures On Walls, I'd been hanging out with Banksy for a few years travelling around the world together painting stuff, and then we moved into a new office and wanted to do screenprinting.

Street artists want to add something to the environment. They consider the audience, whereas graffiti writers don't care about anyone except themselves, they do it purely for the kick.

I don't want to sell to street art collectors, I want to sell to art collectors.

I'm always travelling and spend a lot of time in airports so I know what it feels like to get a personal welcome home. I wish I got more of them.

You can't be a punk all your life.

David Cameron has given one of my paintings to President Obama. It's quite mad, really. But it's OK. It's not the kind of recognition I seek or get every day, but Cameron seems quite a positive kind of guy and Obama's a dude. I would probably have had issues if it had been for Bush.

My friends were stealing cars and shoplifting. I was never into that but I was cheeky. I enjoyed making people laugh.

When I first got into graffiti I thought it was going to change the world. But when, 20-years-later, it still hadn't, I got bored of the self-imposed rules.

Anyone can lose their home and find their life is turned upside down.

My work isn't overtly political, although it is sometimes painted in places where I don't have permission to paint, so that could be construed as a political statement.

The whole world is covered in graffiti. No one cares. It's just part of urban noise.

All too often, when people think about art in the U.K., they think London. There's some really great work being produced outside of the capital city and I think it is important to stop and acknowledge that.

Whenever I get a job that's somewhere around America, I fly over my ex-wife and daughter and hang out with them.

I love to paint and beautify the most unexpected of places - I've painted everything from doorways to trains but have always wanted to do something really huge and different.

I remember finding this book, which showed a New York subway train that had been covered in so much graffiti you couldn't recognise it was a train. I thought, 'I want to do that… how do you do that?'

Street art belongs on the street. But I'm a working street artist and I earn my money selling art in the style of street art via galleries.

I've a lot of respect for what people are doing here in Manchester, to promote the city's creativity and Aviva Investors Manchester Art Fair has played a big role in that. I'm glad to bring my work to the North West.

It's hard to live just by selling paintings.

I respect Virgin Atlantic's brave and challenging attitude and the way it goes against the grain, so I jumped at the chance to be part of the first ever Gallery in the Air.