Saul Leiter Quotes

I don't like being successful; the subjects which sit in my head are annoyed and jealous of what has already been written.

My whole life, I've felt like I didn't quite measure up.

Too often, I have not been what I wanted to be; I've succumbed to pressures. Yes, I have. The things I've done that I liked, I've always done against advice.

I may be a successful football player, but I feel like such a failure.

I haven't met a woman without insecurities.

I'm usually pretty insecure.

I'm not the guy who bursts into the room. I'm the most insecure person you'll meet if you get to know me.

I feel I'm a hard person to like.

I have absolutely no sense of my success whatsoever, in fact, I only have a sense of not doing what I intended to do. I don't know who I am.

From a certain point of view our real enemy, the true troublemaker, is inside.

When I turn my eye inward, I find nothing but doubt and ignorance. All the world conspires to oppose and contradict me; though such is my weakness, that I feel all my opinions loosen and fall of themselves, when unsupported by the approbation of others.

Come on now! How could you be me and want to be someone else?

A man may quarrel with himself alone; that is, by controverting his better instincts and knowledge when brought face to face with temptation.

I hesitated for all the right reasons. And I accepted for all the wrong ones.

I have a really weird relationship with myself where I'll say, "Do it, do it!" and then, "I don't want to do it anymore, I hate photo shoots, I'm so tired of this!" Or, "I wrote a song, and you're gonna sing it!" then, "I can't hit the note." I want to be a behind-the-scenes producer. I really hate being in front of people. But I'm also obsessed with becoming a pop star.

I felt so insufficiently equipped, so unprepared, so weak, and at the same time it seemed to me that my reflections on art were correct. I quarreled with all the world and with myself.

It's ridiculous what I do. I can't believe in it - but I have to.

A lot of people are afraid of winning. I was afraid I might not win.

Success on a cosmic level completely eludes me. I'm deeply suspicious of things being too good. It's part of my superstition, I think, to generate pain in order to give the illusion of gain. I'm not saying I reject success, but honestly, I don't quite know how to deal with it. It's an old feeling: As soon as you have the thing you've been going after all your life, that reasonable degree of security, you start kicking against it, doubting it.

Elizabeth scowled, feeling like a nobody, a nothing. She felt like her entire self had been made worthless. She could change her interests, but she couldn't change her looks. She'd never be six feet tall. She'd never look like a supermodel.

At once, it’s clear I cannot gush. We try me playing cocky, but I just don’t have the arrogance. Apparently, I’m too “vulnerable” for ferocity. I’m not witty. Funny. Sexy. Or mysterious By the end of the session, I am no one at all.

I've always had that chip on my shoulder. I've just always been super hard on myself.

I had very, very bad self-esteem - that I was a fake, everybody was going to find out, that I didn't deserve to have success, just about my looks and really, really bad self-esteem.

For someone so conflicted, who am I to give advice to anybody? It’s such a funny, grandiose idea