Quotes from Robert Mapplethorpe

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

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

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

I wish I could be elegant.

Beauty and the devil are the same thing.

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

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 just want to be written about as a normal artist.

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

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