James Nachtwey // "There has always been war. War is raging throughout the world at the present moment. And there is little reason to believe that war will cease to exist in the future. As man has become increasingly civilized, his means of destroying his fellow man have become ever more efficient, cruel and devastating... Is it possible to put an end to a form of human behaviour which has existed throughout history by means of photography? The proportions of that notion seem ridiculously out of balance. Yet, that very idea has motivated me. For me, the strength of photography lies in its ability to evoke a sense of humanity. If war is an attempt to negate humanity, then photography can be perceived as the opposite of war and if it is used well it can be a powerful ingredient in the antidote to war... It has occurred to me that if everyone could be there just once to see for themselves...what unspeakable pain is caused by the impact of a single bullet or how a jagged piece of shrapnel can rip someone's leg off...if everyone could be there to see for themselves the fear and the grief, just one time, then they would understand that nothing is worth letting things get to the point where that happens to even one person, let alone thousands. But everyone cannot be there, and that is why photographers go there...to show them, to reach out and grab them and make them stop what they are doing and pay attention to what is going on...to create pictures powerful enough to overcome the diluting effects of the mass media and shake people out of their indifference...to protest and by the strength of that protest to make others protest."
Marguerite Yourcenar // "A touch of madness is, I think, almost always necessary for constructing a destiny."
Princess Diana // "I knew what my job was; it was to go out and meet the people and love them."
Arundhati Roy // "Use your art to fight."
David Byrne // "I really enjoy forgetting. When I first come to a place, I notice all the little details. I notice the way the sky looks. The color of white paper. The way people walk. Doorknobs. Everything. Then I get used to the place and I don't notice those things anymore. So only by forgetting can I see the place again as it really is."
Marlon Brando // "Never confuse the size of your paycheck with the size of your talent."
Martin Luther King Jr. // "An individual has not begun to live until he can rise above the narrow horizons of his particular individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity. And this is one of the big problems of life, that so many people never quite get to the point of rising above self....so they end up the tragic victims of self-centeredness. They are the people who live an eternal 'I' ... They start out, the minute you talk with them, talking about what they can do, what they have done...where they have been...who they know....and how much money they have. Now, we can say to a certain extent that persons in this situation are persons who have really never grown up... For you see, a child is inevitably, necessarily egocentric. He is a bundle of his own sensations, clamoring to be cared for... When people become mature, they are to rise above this. When one matures...he turns himself to higher loyalties. He gives himself to something outside of himself. He gives himself to causes that he lives for and sometimes will even die for. He comes to the point that now he can rise above his individualistic concerns. And so you see people who are apparently selfish; it isn’t merely an ethical issue but it is a psychological issue. They are the victims of arrested development, and they are still children. They haven’t grown up."
J.K. Rowling // "Don’t let the muggles get you down."
Cate Blanchett // "Things present themselves to you, and it's how you choose to deal with them that reveals who you are. We all say a lot of things, don't we, about who we are and how we think. But in the end it's your actions, how you respond to circumstance that reveals your character."
Paul Newman // "I'd like to be remembered as a guy who tried...tried to be part of his times, tried to help people communicate with one another, tried to find some decency in his own life, tried to extend himself as a human being. Someone who isn't complacent, who doesn't cop out."
Alice Walker // "What the mind doesn't understand, it worships or fears."
Tilda Swinton // "It's a real comfort zone for me to feel alien."
