Quotes by Diane Arbus

A photograph is a secret about a secret. The more it tells you the less you know.
– Diane Arbus
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.
– Diane Arbus
I never have taken a picture I've intended. They're always better or worse.
– Diane Arbus
I really believe there are things nobody would see if I didn't photograph them.
– Diane Arbus
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.
– Diane Arbus
Love involves a peculiar unfathomable combination of understanding and misunderstanding.
– Diane Arbus
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.
– Diane Arbus
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.
– Diane Arbus
My favourite thing is to go where I've never been.
– Diane Arbus
Nothing is easier than self-deceit. For what each man wishes, that he also believes to be true.
– Diane Arbus
Nothing is ever the same as they said it was.
– Diane Arbus
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.
– Diane Arbus
The thing that's important to know is that you never know. You're always sort of feeling your way.
– Diane Arbus
The world can only be grasped by action, not by contemplation. The hand is the cutting edge of the mind.
– Diane Arbus
There are an awful lot of people in the world and it's going to be terribly hard to photograph all of them... It was my teacher Lisette Model who finally made it clear to me that the more specific you are, the more general it will be.
– Diane Arbus
These are characters in a fairy tale for grown-ups. Wouldn't it be lovely? Yes.
– Diane Arbus
What moves me about...what's called technique...is that it comes from some mysterious deep place. I mean it can have something to do with the paper and the developer and all that stuff, but it comes mostly from some very deep choices somebody has made that take a long time and keep haunting them.
– Diane Arbus
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.
– Diane Arbus
My favorite thing is to go where I've never been.
– Diane Arbus