Mapplethorpe Y Quotes

#1. Of course, in the end, when Mapplethorpe turned out to be very gay, Smith was left with no other option than to go off and write Horses and grow the world's most influential lady mustache instead. Her hand was forced into productivity.

Caitlin Moran

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

Robert Mapplethorpe

#3. I am selfish, but that's an attribute that all artists possess.

Robert Mapplethorpe

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

Robert Mapplethorpe

#5. 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

#6. Mapplethorpe presented the body as a sexual object, separating it from the humanity of the person. He added nothing to photography as a medium. I hold his work in low regard.

Jerzy Kosinski

#7. Your work, coming from a fluid source, can be traced to the naked song of your youth. You spoke then of holding hands with God. Remember, through everything, you have always held that hand, grip it hard, Robert, and don't let go.

(letter to Robert Mapplethorpe, 1970)

Patti Smith

#8. 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

#9. 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.

Robert Mapplethorpe

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

Robert Mapplethorpe

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

Robert Mapplethorpe

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

Robert Mapplethorpe

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

Robert Mapplethorpe

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

Robert Mapplethorpe

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

Robert Mapplethorpe

#16. 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

#17. To make pictures big is to make them more powerful.

Robert Mapplethorpe

#18. 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

#19. Obviously there was Keith Haring and Robert Mapplethorpe, but Howard was on the brink of becoming a famous director - it didn't happen because he died.

Aaron Brookner

#20. When I create art, it's like holding hands with God.

Robert Mapplethorpe

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

Robert Mapplethorpe

#22. I should try to get some sleep as one doesn't know what tomorrow may bring.

Robert Mapplethorpe

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

Robert Mapplethorpe

#24. I can't have just anybody assisting me, I need somebody who I can really communicate with.

Robert Mapplethorpe

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

Robert Mapplethorpe

#26. I'm not a photojournalist.

Robert Mapplethorpe

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

Robert Mapplethorpe

#28. I wish I could be elegant.

Robert Mapplethorpe

#29. Robert Mapplethorpe, I met in 1967. He was a student at Pratt, though even as a student a fully formed artist. We went through many things in our life together. He became my loved one, then my best friend.

Patti Smith

#30. 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