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.”

“What I'm trying to describe is that it's impossible to get out of your skin into somebody else's.... That somebody else's tragedy is not the same as your own.”

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

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

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

“That is why people have jobs and pay checks... it helps keep you from unanswerable questions.”

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