Susan Sontag Quotes

I really knew when I started photographing I wanted it to be a way of knowing different cultures, not just in other countries but in this country, too, and I knew I wanted to be a voyeur.

People have different impressions of themselves, and where reality lies is somewhere in between.

Now very often events are set up for photographers... The weddings are orchestrated about the photographers taking the picture, because if it hasn't been photographed it doesn't really exist.

In front of the camera I look and I see visually what I've created.

We are drowning in images. Photography is used as a propaganda tool, which serves to sell products and ideas. I use the same approach to show aspects of reality.

You can go into all sorts of situations with a camera and people will think they should serve it.

Today everything exists to end in a photograph.

We tried to present the ordinary in an extraordinary manner. But that's the paradox because the only thing extraordinary about it was that it was so ordinary. Nobody had ever done it before, deliberately. Now it's called documentary, which I suppose is all right ... We just took pictures that cried out to be taken.

If you look at the person that someone chooses to have a relationship with, you'll see what they think of themselves.

Inner Nature, when relied on, cannot be fooled. But many people do not look at it or listen to it, and consequently do not understand themselves very much. Having little understanding of themselves, they have little respect for themselves, and are therefore easily influenced by others.

All that matters is how you see yourself.

That [photographs] disturb readers is exactly as it should be: that's why photojournalism is often more powerful than written journalism.

It is a fact that you project what you are.

Very early you come to the realization that nothing will ever take you away from yourself.

The ablest man I ever met is the man you think you are.

If the only vision we have of ourselves comes from the social mirror - from the current social paradigm and from the opinions, perceptions, and paradigms of the people around us - our view of ourselves is like the reflection in a crazy mirror room at the carnival.

Hearing myself so much all the time, I don't think I sound that special all the time because it's me.

Most people, I believe, when they're asked profound questions about their own persona are not really able to enunciate it, because it's a combination of so many things.

I'm not used to being in front of a camera as myself. I'm not used to watching myself as myself.

In the end, we self-perceiving, self-inventing, locked-in mirages are little miracles of self-reference.

I never stop to wonder why I'm not like other people. They mystery to me is why more people aren't like me.

I may be a real bad boy, but baby I'm a real good man.

Reputation is what others perceive you as being, and their opinion may be right or wrong. Character, however, is what you really are, and nobody truly knows that but you. But you are what matters most.

Even now, and you can look at me, am I a savage person? My conscience is clear.