Diane Ackerman Quotes

For Reason, ruling alone, is a force confining; and Passion, unattended, is a flame that burns to its own destruction.

Do you think that the things people make fools of themselves about are any less real and true than the things they behave sensibly about? They are more true: they are the only things that are true.

I've learned to be more reserved, watch what I'm saying; I got in a little bit of trouble. People tell me 'Never lose that, never lose that,' but then I get in trouble so I have to lose it. I'm trying to keep a little bit; I'm never going to lose who I am, I just gotta tone it down a little bit.

I think of part of myself as a very passionate person, but I don't think that comes across. I don't know where it comes from, that reserve or veneer of British niceness. But it doesn't bother me if other people don't spot the passion. I know it's there.

Don't think too much of style.

People say you're flirting with death but really you're flirting with life.

O, she is the antidote to desire.

I get so sick of people asking: "What's your demographic?" Or: "Oh we've got to aim this at..." No, you have to aim it at you. You do the thing you would love... make the thing you would love and be proud of. There's enough people in the world that, if you do that and do it well as a single vision, they'll go: "That's my favourite thing ever!"

When I hear people tell me they love what I do, no matter what the climate is, it makes me want to go harder, because that's what I'm out here fighting for - to get that love. You just want to be appreciated for being you and being the best you.

Partake of love as a temperate man partakes of wine; do not become intoxicated.

It is the essence of truth that it is never excessive.... We must not resort to the flame where only light is required.

Wine has made me bold, but not foolish; has induced me to say silly things, but not do them.

People know when you're speaking from el corazón. You have that pain. Take that pain and do something with it. That's very powerful.

I do think that it's always okay to show too little. People will still be interested. So why show too much?

The American people are slow to wrath, but when their wrath is once kindled it burns like a consuming flame.

If I was concerned about being accepted, I would have been doing Ansel Adams lookalikes, because that was easily accepted. Everything I did was never accepted...but luckily for me, my interest in the subject and my passion for the subject took me to the point that I wasn't wounded by that, and eventually, people came around to me.

And if there is still one hellish, truly accursed thing in our time, it is our artistic dallying with forms, instead of being like victims burnt at the stake, signaling through the flames.

I strive to live with passion and not to be desensitised to life. Things matter to me. You’ve got to live like that. Otherwise what’s the point? It’s not possible to please everyone and there is no point in trying to be what other people think you should be. For me, it’s important to be who I am, not just to be different but to be as authentic as I can be.

Whether zeal or moderation be the point we aim at, let us keep fire out of the one, and frost out of the other.

In avoiding one vice fools rush into the opposite extreme.

The less attention I pay to what people want and the more attention I pay to just writing the book I want to write, the better I do.

There's a quote from Hamlet that is my guide... He tells the players not to exaggerate but to hold a mirror up to nature. Don't overdo it, don't underdo it. Do it just on the line.

The 20-minute walk I take is better than the 3-mile run I never start. Having people over for take-out is better than never having people to an elegant dinner party.

It is a campaign not for abundance but for austerity. It is a campaign not for more freedom but for less. Strangest of all, it is a campaign not just against other people, but against ourselves.