Top 62 Quotes & Sayings by Robert Mapplethorpe
Explore popular quotes and sayings by an American photographer Robert Mapplethorpe.
Last updated on April 14, 2025.
I'm not photographing anything naked these days. I haven't been concentrating on bodies recently.
This AIDS stuff is pretty scary. I hope I don't get it.
I played around with the flowers and the lighting, so that was a good way to educate myself.
I just hope I can live long enough to see the fame.
I would never have done what I'd done if I'd considered my father as somebody I wanted to please.
I've never lied. I think I've lived a moral life.
One must ease the public into it - that's an art in itself.
Just because I was out at the bars all the time didn't mean I wasn't looking for someone to love.
I recorded that because it happened to me. I wasn't making a point.
The more pictures you see, the better you are as a photographer.
My father wants me to be like my brother, but I can't be.
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.
If I have to change my lifestyle, I don't want to live.
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'm looking for the unexpected. I'm looking for things I've never seen before.
My theory about creativity is that the more money one has, the more creative one can be.
Beauty and the devil are the same thing.
You're never going to get anywhere in life if you don't live up to your obligations.
I see things like they've never been seen before. Art is an accurate statement of the time in which it is made.
I am selfish, but that's an attribute that all artists possess.
I just try to live my life and do my thing.
I'm not a photojournalist.
I don't think any collector knows his true motivation.
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 don't know why my pictures come out looking so good. I just don't get it.
People don't have time to wait for somebody to paint their portraits anymore. The money is in photography.
I always thought I was good. That's why it was so frustrating when other people didn't agree.
I just want to be written about as a normal artist.
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.
I should try to get some sleep as one doesn't know what tomorrow may bring.
Sell the public flowers... things that they can hang on their walls without being uptight.
Whenever you make love to someone, there should be three people involved - you, the other person, and the devil.
My lifestyle is bizarre, but the only thing you need to know is where the darkroom is.
The photographs that are art have to be separated from the rest - then preserved.
I wish I could be elegant.
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.
Happiness? No, it's not there for me.
I went into photography because it seemed like the perfect vehicle for commenting on the madness of today's existence.
With photography, you zero in; you put a lot of energy into short moments, and then you go on to the next thing.
When I work, and in my art, I hold hands with God.
I can't have just anybody assisting me, I need somebody who I can really communicate with.
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.
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.
When I’m behind a camera I forget I exist.
My work is about seeing - seeing things like they haven't been seen before.
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.
I stand naked when I draw. God holds my hand and we sing together.
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.
I don't use recreational drugs, except for cocaine, hallucinogens, and nitrates.
People have done pornographic pictures forever, but most of the people who involve themselves in explicit sexuality aren't really artists.
I played around with the flowers and the lighting, so that was a good way to educate myself
Whether it's an orgy or a cocktail party, I know how to do it.
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 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 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.
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 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.
The best picture I got was Bianca Jagger whispering in Mick's ear. I caught them telling a secret, which is sort of rude.
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.
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