Philippe Halsman Quotes

I don't like getting people upset, so that's not my goal. But I like putting people in situations where how they respond says a lot about them.

By manipulating queuing, by manipulating expectation, you can lead people to a fundamental confrontation, not only with themselves, but with the Other.

Guilt stirs me, but only to self-pity.

The best time to give feedback to strong people is when they're feeling weak, and to weak people when they're feeling strong.

I went to the door, and Gary tried hard not to notice I was blue. He looked at his feet, and he looked above my head, and he cleared his throat. It's okay,' I said. 'I know I'm blue.' It caught me by surprise,' he said. 'I didn't want to seem rude.

Something I learned long ago. It is not necessary to know what a person is afraid of. It is enough to know the person is afraid.

If you kill a character people feel sad. That's too easy.

When anyone apologizes to us he has to do it very expertly: otherwise we might easily come to see ourselves as the guilty party and experience unpleasant feelings.

Proust has pointed out that the predisposition to love creates its own objects; is this not also true of fear?

The secret to Hitler's power is ... that his unconscious has exceptional access to his conscious and ... that he allows himself to be moved by it. [Others] have too much rationality, too much cerebrum to obey it [but] Hitler listens.

The only way to truly know a person is to argue with them. For when they argue in full swing, then they reveal their true character.

And usually I'm not watching the screen. I'm kind of sitting and looking off to the side, spying on people to see what they react to' cause it's - as Joe Ranft used to say, you know, animation is like telling a joke and waiting for three years to see if anyone laughs

People only respond to fear.

The human mind is never better disposed to gratitude and attachment than when softened by fear.

Fear, to a great extent, is born of a story we tell ourselves.

But the touch or company of any man whatsoever stirreth up their heat, which in their solitude was hushed and quiet, and lay as cinders raked up in ashes.

How am I doing so far?" she asked, forcing a cheerful lightness into her voice. "You're doing very well," Nick's lazy voice mocked. "I'm half convinced that I'm invisible.

Anger makes people feel uncomfortable, because the minute somebody shows it, it puts you in a position where you can't laugh or make light of something... not to trivialise it I don't mean. But your reaction to anger is supposed to be fear or returned anger. So, you're really trying to control a situation when you show anger and it's a very weak position to take. It often works on people who aren't in a position to fight back.

Nothing makes people so worthy of compliments as receiving them. One is more delightful for being told one is delightful-just as one is more angry for being told one is angry.

Seduction is a matter of feelings and people opening themselves. I don't think it's something tricky - it's being human. And everybody is seduced by something different.

Children are not only sensitive to silence, but also to a voice which calls them ... Out of that silence.

I have never met an aggressive person who wasn’t a fearful person.

Self-pity? I see no moral objections to it, the smell drives people away, but that's a practical objection, and occasionally an advantage.

And remember one fundamental law of life. If they are hostile, they have hate towards us, sooner or later they are going to fall into my trap, because hate can turn into love very easily, just as love can become hate very easily.

I was shy as a child. Now I'm not really shy any more, unless I'm with shy people. I find it contagious and I don't know what to say. But I don't think shyness is something one should feel apologetic about.