30 Quotes by 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.

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

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

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.

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

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

My brothers were rabbis. My grandfather was a rabbi.

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

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.