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.
Diane ArbusRead
It would be beautiful to photograph the winners of everything from Nobel to booby prize, clutching trophy, or money or certificate, solemn or smiling or tear stained or bloody, on the precarious pinnacle of the human landscape.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote reflects on the contrasting nature of success and failure, highlighting the wide spectrum of human experience.
Diane Arbus's quote emphasizes the complexity of human achievement by suggesting that the act of capturing the diverse spectrum of winners—from esteemed award recipients like Nobel laureates to those receiving humorous or derisive accolades—can reveal deep truths about society and the human condition. It points to the fragile nature of success while acknowledging the varied emotional states associated with winning, demonstrating that triumph is often intertwined with vulnerability and struggle.
Themes
SuccessFailureAchievementHuman ExperienceAwardsEmotionsStruggle
In practice
Example use cases
In a motivational speech discussing the nature of success and its emotional implications.
More from Diane Arbus
All quotes →I tend to think of the act of photographing, generally speaking, as an adventure. My favorite thing is to go where I’ve never been.
Diane ArbusRead
... I must begin at whatever pace is possible, to work on the book of my own that i vaguely keep assuming lies at the end of the rainbow. It is after all my rainbow and if I don't do it no one else will...Survival is the secret so you really can't afford to doubt yourself for long because you are all you've got. The only thing to do is to go the limit with it. Exceed.
Diane ArbusRead
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.
Diane ArbusRead
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 ArbusRead
If I were just curious, it would be very hard to say to someone, I want to come to your house and have you talk to me and tell me the story of your life. I mean people are going to say, You're crazy. Plus they're going to keep mighty guarded. But the camera is a kind of license. A lot of people, they want to be paid that much attention and that's a reasonable kind of attention to be paid.
Diane ArbusRead
Similar quotes
If you want to write fiction, the best thing you can do is take two aspirins, lie down in a dark room, and wait for the feeling to pass.
Lawrence BlockRead
Always, when I do a play, there's got to be an equation of risks and potential failure. When you're working on a new play, it's like, 'How the hell do I do this, and do we have the time?' All of these huge questions engage, hopefully, the smartest part of me. And then when you're doing a revival, I went, 'Well, somebody's already solved it.'
George C. WolfeRead
Good writing ... involves the agony of turning profoundly difficult thoughts into lucid form, then forcing them into the tight-fitting uniform of language, making them visible and clear.
Pat ConroyRead
One of the great functions of art is to help us imagine what it is like to be not ourselves, what it is like to be someone or something else, what it is like to live in another skin, what it is like to live in another body, and in that sense to surpass ourselves, to go out beyond ourselves.
Adrienne RichRead
Poetry begins where language starts: in the shadows and accidents of one person’s life.
Eavan BolandRead
At Pixar, good ideas may be cut from a film, but they are never forgotten.
John LasseterRead