Diane Arbus

Love involves a peculiar unfathomable combination of understanding and misunderstanding.

I used to think consciousness itself was a virtue, so I tried to keep it all in my head at the same time: past, future, etc.

Freaks was a thing I photographed a lot. It was one of the first things I photographed, and it had a terrific kind of excitement for me. I just used to adore them. I still do adore some of them.

I am full of a sense of promise, like I often have: the feeling of always being at the beginning.

I want to photograph the considerable ceremonies of our present. I want to gather them, like somebody's grandmother putting up preserves, because they will have been so beautiful.

I think it does, a little, hurt to be photographed.

I hated painting, and I quit right after high school because I was continually told how terrific I was... it made me feel shaky.

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

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

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

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.

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