Quotes & anectdotes from
the wise,
the foolish,
the courageous &
the drunk

Robert Mapplethorpe Photographer

  • Gender: Male
  • Citizenship: United States
  • Born: Nov 4, 1946
  • Died: Mar 9, 1989

Robert Mapplethorpe was an American photographer, known for his sometimes controversial large-scale, highly stylized black and white photography. His work featured an array of subjects, including celebrity portraits, male and female nudes, self-portraits and still-life images of flowers. His most controversial work is that of the underground bondage and sadomasochistic BDSM scene in the late 1960s and early 1970s of New York. The homoeroticism of this work fuelled a national debate over the public funding of controversial artwork.

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

Beauty and the devil are the same thing.

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

To make pictures big is to make them more powerful.

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

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

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

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

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

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