Saul Leiter Quotes

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Saul Leiter

Profession : Artist

Birth : December 3, 1923

When I am listening to Vivaldi or Japanese music or making spaghetti at 3 in the morning and realize that I don't have the proper sauce for it, fame is of no use.

Saul Leiter

I spent a great deal of my life being ignored. I was always very happy that way.

Saul Leiter

Being ignored is a great privilege. That is how I think I learned to see what others do not see and to react to situations differently. I simply looked at the world, not really prepared for anything.

Saul Leiter

Photography is about finding things. And painting is different - it's about making something.

Saul Leiter

There are the things that are out in the open, and there are the things that are hidden. The real world has more to do with what is hidden.

Saul Leiter

I like it when one is not certain what one sees. When we do not know why the photographer has taken a picture and when we do not know why we are looking at it, all of a sudden we discover something that we start seeing. I like this confusion.

Saul Leiter

I have been told that some of my photographs maybe indicate that I am a painter.

Saul Leiter

I may be old-fashioned. But I believe there is such a thing as a search for beauty - a delight in the nice things in the world. And I don't think one should have to apologise for it.

Saul Leiter

Sometimes I'm amazed by how much you can do as a photographer.

Saul Leiter

My family was very unhappy about my becoming a photographer - profoundly and deeply unhappy.

Saul Leiter

I'm sometimes mystified by people who keep diaries. I never thought of my existence as being that important.

Saul Leiter

I am not immersed in self-admiration.

Saul Leiter

I like the Zen artists: they'd do some work, and then they'd stop for a while.

Saul Leiter

What makes anyone think that I'm any good?

Saul Leiter

I've never been overwhelmed with a desire to become famous. It's not that I didn't want to have my work appreciated, but for some reason - maybe it's because my father disapproved of almost everything I did - in some secret place in my being was a desire to avoid success.

Saul Leiter

In order to build a career and to be successful, one has to be determined. One has to be ambitious. I much prefer to drink coffee, listen to music, and to paint when I feel like it.

Saul Leiter

My brothers were rabbis. My grandfather was a rabbi.

Saul Leiter

My father thought photography was done by lowlifes.

Saul Leiter