Diane Arbus

My favourite thing is to go where I've never been.

The world can only be grasped by action, not by contemplation. The hand is the cutting edge of the mind.

A picture is a secret about a secret, the more it tells you the less you know.

Nothing is ever the same as they said it was.

Love involves a peculiar unfathomable combination of understanding and misunderstanding.

You see someone on the street, and essentially what you notice about them is the flaw.

My favorite thing is to go where I've never been.

I really believe there are things nobody would see if I didn't photograph them.

I work from awkwardness. By that I mean I don't like to arrange things. If I stand in front of something, instead of arranging it, I arrange myself.

The more specific you are, the more general it'll be.

Most people go through life dreading they'll have a traumatic experience. Freaks were born with their trauma. They've already passed their test in life. They're aristocrats.

A photograph is a secret about a secret. The more it tells you the less you know.

Taking pictures is like tiptoeing into the kitchen late at night and stealing Oreo cookies.

Photographing a culture in the here and now often means photographing the intersection of the present with the past.

When you grow up your mother says, 'Wear rubbers or you'll catch cold.' When you become an adult you discover that you have the right not to wear rubbers and to see if you catch cold or not. It's something like that.

The thing that's important to know is that you never know. You're always sort of feeling your way.

Regardless of how you feel inside, always try to look like a winner. Even if you are behind, a sustained look of control and confidence can give you a mental edge that results in victory.

I never have taken a picture I've intended. They're always better or worse.

I always thought of photography as a naughty thing to do - that was one of my favorite things about it, and when I first did it, I felt very perverse.

Men are but children of a larger growth, Our appetites as apt to change as theirs, And full as craving too, and full as vain.