David LaChapelle quotes:

I like the Eiffel Tower in Las Vegas more than the actual one.

I believe in a visual language that should be as strong as the written word.

You work with people who are obsessive about shopping, obsessive about owning things and buying things, like this purchase is going to make them happy. And you want to say to them, 'You know, no amount of real estate is gonna fill that void.'

With mania, is it dangerous to ride that euphoric feeling. You feel very animated and creative; I would fill journals with drawings. It feels good and you want it to last, but it can lead to being delusional. The delusions can be as real as you thinking you can fly.

For me, it's easier to like more things than to dislike them; I'm not a critic in that sense. I find it easier to like more, to be more open and enjoy more things, which has given me more opportunities.

I went to art high school and thought I'd be a painter. Unfortunately I didn't finish high school, but that's always been part of my work.

Just as Renaissance artists provided narratives for the era they lived in, so do I. I'm always looking beyond the surface. I've done that ever since I first picked up a camera.

Success to me is being a good person, treating people well.

Just as Renaissance artists provided narratives for the era they lived in, so do I. I'm always looking beyond the surface. I've done that ever since I first picked up a camera."

There's nothing that symbolizes loss or grief more than a mother losing a child.

I'm a photographer, period. I love photography, the immediacy of it. I like the craft, the idea of saying 'I'm a photographer.'

My work is about making candy for the eyes. It's about grabbing your attention. Even though my work is appearing in magazines I am trying to make a large picture. I want my photographs to read like a poster.

My mother taught me a lot about respect for all living things - for plants and animals. I am a vegetarian. I was brought up that way.

I love fashion, beauty, glamour. It's the mark of civilisation.

I like thinking about the fragility of the human flesh and our bodies - our decay and eventual death.

What's shocking is cruelty and torture, and that's become our entertainment. Kids can play violent video games, but God forbid they look at a naked woman. That's pornography, that's perverse. No!

I was always painting when I was a kid. But then when I handled a camera when I was 17, that was it for me. I loved photography. I would work 4 or 5 hours a day. It was like a calling.

I've never wanted to be part of an inner circle of any scene. I've always been an outsider looking to question and subvert.

People get devalued in Hollywood when they age, despite all their efforts to stay relevant and beautiful and young. They can't get jobs anymore.

The adornment of the body is a human need. I don't see anything superficial about it unless your life becomes very materialistic.

We use fashion for status and to beautify and there's nothing wrong with that, but when it becomes completely unbalanced, then you're living a decadent life. And when that happens on a global scale, you're living in a decadent world.

In the fashion world, I was always an outsider, but I made people look good, so I had a career.

I never want people to be repulsed with my pictures; I always want to attract people.

I still go to church occasionally. I went the other day and found peace.

I like the consistency of having people in my life for a long time.

People say photographs don't lie, mine do.

As you get older, you think about things differently from when you do in your twenties, when you think you'll live forever.

I shoot fantasy. If you want reality, ride the bus

If you want reality take the bus.

I think we're in a post-pornographic time and nothing seems shocking, but everything remains carnal no matter what you do.

My pictures are about getting as far away from reality as possible. Dreams should be part of our everyday life.

I believe Michael [Jackson] in a sense is an American martyr. Martyrs are persecuted and Michael was persecuted. Michael was innocent and martyrs are innocent. If you go on YouTube and watch interviews with Michael, you don't see a crack in the facade. There's this purity and this innocence that continued [throughout his life].

If you watch Michael Jackson [1992] concerts from Budapest and compare it to a Madonna concert of today, you'll see such uplifting beauty and a message that you won't see in any other artist of our time.

I have no interest in being famous. I just want to make famous photographs.

Prostitutes go to heaven. It's their clients that go to hell.

I'm not condemning the Catholic Church - it's too big, it's like condemning a nation and that would be prejudiced.

My idea was that if I took a picture of somebody and years later, or whenever, they would die and if someone wanted to know who this person was, they could take one of these pictures and it would tell who the person was.

I wanted it to provide an escape route, I wanted to make pictures that were fantastic and took you into another world, one that was brighter. I started off with this idea.

What I'm doing here is pointing out an irony: Here you have an institution that has systematically protected pedophile priests and then you have an innocent Michael Jackson, who California spent millions of dollars trying to prosecute and could not do it because it was complete bulls - t.

Pictures are an escape. They should be bigger than life. In the same way, celebrities provide an escape from the mundane. They are photographed so we can worship them - so they are worthy of our worship.

I'm part of what I consider the entertainment industry. For my photos to be entertaining, they have to be provocative and new.

You work with people who are obsessive about shopping, obsessive about owning things and buying things, like this purchase is going to make them happy. And you want to say to them, You know, no amount of real estate is gonna fill that void.

I have this idea that you can use glamour and still have it represent something that matters.

I had this duality growing up with my dad being a strict Catholic and his brother being a priest and my mother finding God in nature, so I've taken a little from both [traditions].

My work is about making candy for the eyes. It's about grabbing your attention.

It's much harder to work for yourself, by yourself, than to create work for a gallery, because there are no limits and you can do anything you want. It's always easier when you have a parameter, when you have a limit. You can work within the limit and push it and walk the line, but when you're given absolutely no limits, it's harder. You must really think. It's more challenging.

Michael [Jackson] had paintings of himself at Neverland depicting himself as a knight and surrounded by cherubs and angels. People might think he's an egomaniac, but he's not. It's because the world turned against him.

My dream since I was a kid was to show in a gallery.

The minute you point a camera at something, you are manipulating the image, because you are cropping out whatever is to the left and right of it. The minute you put a light on someone, you are manipulating the image.

I never wanted to be famous. I always wanted to take famous photographs.

You just do what you love, and then a style happens later on.

The tools I learned photographing celebrities, now I want to use them to sell ideas.

People will get tired of overly retouched images soon and they'll want something different. If people have too much reality, they want fantasy. What matters most is what the image communicates. I remember the first roll of film I shot at high school, the contact sheet went from these really worthy images of cracks in the wall and ended up with all of my dancer friends naked in Renaissance poses.

I love fashion, beauty, glamour. It's the mark of civilisation,

The adornment of the body is a human need.

The key is to photograph your obsessions, whether thatâ??s old peopleâ??s hands or skyscrapers. Think of a blank canvas, because thatâ??s what youâ??ve got, and then think about what you want to see. Not anyone else.