Robert Mapplethorpe Quotes

I would never have done what I'd done if I'd considered my father as somebody I wanted to please.

I don't use recreational drugs, except for cocaine, hallucinogens, and nitrates.

I wish I could be elegant.

When I work, and in my art, I hold hands with God.

If I had been born one or two hundred years ago, I might have been a sculptor, but photography is a very quick way to see, to make sculpture.

I recorded that because it happened to me. I wasn't making a point.

I just hope I can live long enough to see the fame.

Just because I was out at the bars all the time didn't mean I wasn't looking for someone to love.

I always thought I was good. That's why it was so frustrating when other people didn't agree.

If I have to change my lifestyle, I don't want to live.

I don't know why my pictures come out looking so good. I just don't get it.

I come from suburban America. It was a very safe environment and it was a good place to come from in that it was a good place to leave.

I don't think that there's that much difference between a photograph of a fist up someone's ass and a photograph of carnations in a bowl.

I became the toast of London. A lot of people I met came from these really decadent families where the married men were gay and no one thought anything about it.

One must ease the public into it - that's an art in itself.

I just want to be written about as a normal artist.

I don't think any collector knows his true motivation.

I just try to live my life and do my thing.

The more pictures you see, the better you are as a photographer.

To make pictures big is to make them more powerful.

I don't believe in dogmas and theologies. I just believe in being a good person.

My work is about seeing - seeing things like they haven't been seen before.

Whether it's an orgy or a cocktail party, I know how to do it.

People have done pornographic pictures forever, but most of the people who involve themselves in explicit sexuality aren't really artists.

I stand naked when I draw. God holds my hand and we sing together.

I think that it was a great advantage to go into photography not knowing much about it. Not thinking. I think one of the problems with many photographers today is that they never see for themselves, but just like everybody else ...

I don't like that particular word 'shocking.' I'm looking for the unexpected. I'm looking for things I've never seen before ... I was in a position to take those pictures. I felt an obligation to do them.

I want to see something I've never seen before.

I never liked photography. Not for the sake of photography. I like the object. I like the photographs when you hold them in your hand.

My father wants me to be like my brother, but I can't be.

I see things like they've never been seen before. Art is an accurate statement of the time in which it is made.

When I have sex with someone I forget who I am. For a minute I even forget I'm human. It's the same thing when I'm behind a camera. I forget I exist.

My lifestyle is bizarre, but the only thing you need to know is where the darkroom is.

If I am at a party, I want to be at the party. Too many photographers use the camera to avoid participating in things. They become professional observers.

This AIDS stuff is pretty scary. I hope I don't get it.

I've never lied. I think I've lived a moral life.

Sell the public flowers ... things that they can hang on their walls without being uptight.

My theory about creativity is that the more money one has, the more creative one can be.

If a day goes by without my doing something related to photography, it's as though I've neglected something essential to my existence, as though I had forgotten to wake up.

You're never going to get anywhere in life if you don't live up to your obligations.

I'm not a photojournalist.