Robert Mapplethorpe
Beauty and the devil are the same thing.Collection: Beauty
I would never have done what I'd done if I'd considered my father as somebody I wanted to please.Collection: Dad
I am obsessed with beauty. I want everything to be perfect, and of course it isn't. And that's a tough place to be because you're never satisfied.Collection: Beauty
To make pictures big is to make them more powerful.Collection: Art
When I work, and in my art, I hold hands with God.Collection: Art
My father wants me to be like my brother, but I can't be.Collection: Dad
Sell the public flowers... things that they can hang on their walls without being uptight.
I don't think any collector knows his true motivation.
I'm looking for the unexpected. I'm looking for things I've never seen before.
I recorded that because it happened to me. I wasn't making a point.
I went into photography because it seemed like the perfect vehicle for commenting on the madness of today's existence.
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.
I always thought I was good. That's why it was so frustrating when other people didn't agree.
People don't have time to wait for somebody to paint their portraits anymore. The money is in photography.
I see things like they've never been seen before. Art is an accurate statement of the time in which it is made.
The more pictures you see, the better you are as a photographer.
You're never going to get anywhere in life if you don't live up to your obligations.
One must ease the public into it - that's an art in itself.
Whenever you make love to someone, there should be three people involved - you, the other person, and the devil.
I played around with the flowers and the lighting, so that was a good way to educate myself.
My lifestyle is bizarre, but the only thing you need to know is where the darkroom is.
My theory about creativity is that the more money one has, the more creative one can be.
With photography, you zero in; you put a lot of energy into short moments, and then you go on to the next thing.
The photographs that are art have to be separated from the rest - then preserved.
This AIDS stuff is pretty scary. I hope I don't get it.
Just because I was out at the bars all the time didn't mean I wasn't looking for someone to love.
If I have to change my lifestyle, I don't want to live.
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.
I've never lied. I think I've lived a moral life.
I'm not photographing anything naked these days. I haven't been concentrating on bodies recently.
I'm not a photojournalist.
I wish I could be elegant.
I should try to get some sleep as one doesn't know what tomorrow may bring.
I just want to be written about as a normal artist.
I just try to live my life and do my thing.
I just hope I can live long enough to see the fame.
I don't know why my pictures come out looking so good. I just don't get it.
I don't believe in dogmas and theologies. I just believe in being a good person.
I can't have just anybody assisting me, I need somebody who I can really communicate with.
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.
I am selfish, but that's an attribute that all artists possess.
Happiness? No, it's not there for me.
My work is about seeing - seeing things like they haven't been seen before.Collection: Havens
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.Collection: Unexpected
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.Collection: Thinking
When I’m behind a camera I forget I exist.Collection: Cameras
I am obsessed with beauty. I want everything to be perfect, and of course it isn’t. And that’s a tough place to be because you’re never satisfied.Collection: Artist
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.Collection: Photography
I stand naked when I draw. God holds my hand and we sing together.Collection: Hands
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.Collection: Photography