Robert Mapplethorpe famous quotes

To make pictures big is to make them more powerful
-- Robert Mapplethorpe

#Powerful #Bigs

I want to see something I've never seen before.
-- Robert Mapplethorpe

#Want

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.
-- Robert Mapplethorpe

#Photography #Party #Artist

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

#Art #Hands #Holding Hands

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

#Photography #Photographer

Beauty and the devil are the same thing.
-- Robert Mapplethorpe

#Devil

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

#Artist #People #Frustrating

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.
-- Robert Mapplethorpe

#Sex #Who I Am #Cameras

I went into photography because it seemed like the perfect vehicle for commenting on the madness of today's existence.
-- Robert Mapplethorpe

#Photography #Perfect #Today

Whenever you make love to someone, there should be three people involved - you, the other person, and the devil.
-- Robert Mapplethorpe

#People #Making Love #Devil

I played around with the flowers and the lighting, so that was a good way to educate myself
-- Robert Mapplethorpe

#Flower #Way #Educate

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.
-- Robert Mapplethorpe

#Unexpected #Obligation #Particular

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.
-- Robert Mapplethorpe

#Photography #Hands #Sake

I like to look at pictures, all kinds. And all those things you absorb come out subconsciously one way or another. You'll be taking photographs and suddenly know that you have resources from having looked at a lot of them before. There is no way you can avoid this. But this kind of subconscious influence is good, and it certainly can work for one. In fact, the more pictures you see, the better you are as a photographer.
-- Robert Mapplethorpe

#Way #Facts #Looks

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.
-- Robert Mapplethorpe

#Photography #Wake Up #Essentials

With photography, you zero in; you put a lot of energy into short moments, and then you go on to the next thing.
-- Robert Mapplethorpe

#Photography #Zero #Goes On

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

#Creativity #Creative #Theory

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

#Believe #Dogma #Good Person

People don't have time to wait for somebody to paint their portraits anymore. The money is in photography.
-- Robert Mapplethorpe

#Photography #People #Waiting

When I’m behind a camera I forget I exist
-- Robert Mapplethorpe

#Cameras #Forget #Behinds

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

#Mean #Bars

I should try to get some sleep as one doesn't know what tomorrow may bring
-- Robert Mapplethorpe

#Sleep #Trying #May

The photographs that are art have to be separated from the rest - then preserved.
-- Robert Mapplethorpe

#Art #Artist #Photograph

The best picture I got was Bianca Jagger whispering in Mick's ear. I caught them telling a secret, which is sort of rude.
-- Robert Mapplethorpe

#Artist #Rude #Secret

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

#Wall #Flower #Artist

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

#Artist #Drug #Use

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

#Scary #Stuff #Aids

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

If I have to change my lifestyle, I don't want to live
-- Robert Mapplethorpe

#Want #Lifestyle

My lifestyle is bizarre, but the only thing you need to know is where the darkroom is
-- Robert Mapplethorpe

#Needs #Lifestyle #Bizarre

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

#Art #Ease

I'm not photographing anything naked these days. I haven't been concentrating on bodies recently.
-- Robert Mapplethorpe

#Artist #Naked #Body

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

#Brother #Father #Want

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

#Long #Fame #Enough

I'm looking for the unexpected. I'm looking for things I've never seen before.
-- Robert Mapplethorpe

#Photography #Unexpected

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.
-- Robert Mapplethorpe

#Perfect #Want #Tough

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.
-- Robert Mapplethorpe

#America #Safe #Environment

I've never lied. I think I've lived a moral life
-- Robert Mapplethorpe

#Thinking #Moral #Lied

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.
-- Robert Mapplethorpe

#Gay #Men #People

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

#Motivational #Artist #Thinking

I just try to live my life and do my thing.
-- Robert Mapplethorpe

#Trying #Living My Life

I can't have just anybody assisting me, I need somebody who I can really communicate with.
-- Robert Mapplethorpe

#Needs #Communicate

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

#Obligation

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

#Art #Made #Art Is

I was a Catholic boy, I went to church every Sunday. A church has a certain magic and mystery for a child. It still shows in how I arrange things. It's always little altars.
-- Robert Mapplethorpe

#Photography #Children #Sunday

I just want to be written about as a normal artist
-- Robert Mapplethorpe

#Artist #Normal #Want

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

#Hands #Together #Naked

Happiness? No, it's not there for me.
-- Robert Mapplethorpe

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

#Father #Done #Wanted

I am selfish, but that's an attribute that all artists possess.
-- Robert Mapplethorpe

#Selfish #Artist #Attributes

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

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

#Party #Artist #Cocktails

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