List of Janet Malcolm Quotes

[richard Avedon's] Camera Dwells On The Horrible Things That Age Can Do To People's Faces - On The Flabby Flesh, The Slack Skin, The Ugly Growths, The Puffy Eyes, The Knotted Necks, The Aimless Wrinkles, The Fearful And Anxious Set Of The Mouth, The Marks Left By Sickness, Madness, Alcoholism, And Irreversible Disappointment.

Journalists Justify Their Treachery In Various Ways According To Their Temperaments. The More Pompous Talk About Freedom Of Speech And ‘the Public’s Right To Know’; The Least Talented Talk About Art; The Seemliest Murmur About Earning A Living.

The ‘i’ Character In Journalism Is Almost Pure Invention. Unlike The ‘i’ Of Autobiography, Who Is Meant To Be Seen As A Representation Of The Writer, The ‘i’ Of Journalism Is Connected To The Writer Only In A Tenuous Way—the Way, Say, That Superman Is Connected To Clark Kent. The Journalistic ‘i’ Is An Overreliable Narrator, A Functionary To Whom Crucial Tasks Of Narration And Argument And Tone Have Been Entrusted, An Ad Hoc Creation, Like The Chorus Of Greek Tragedy. He Is An Emblematic Figure, An Embodiment Of The Idea Of The Dispassionate Observer Of Life.

[y]ou Never Come Right Out And Admit You Have Stretched The Rules For Your Own Benefit. You Do It And Shut Up About It, And Hope You Don't Get Caught, Because If You Are Caught No One Or No One Who Has Any Sense Will Come Forward And Say He Has Done The Same Thing Himself.

The 'i' Character In Journalism Is Almost Pure Invention.

If You Scratch A Great Photograph, You Find Two Things; A Painting And A Photograph.

The Heavy Odds Against Finding The Desired... Work Of Art In The Mess And Flux Of Life, As Opposed To The Serene Orderliness Of Imagined Reality, Give A Special Tense Dazzle And An Atmosphere Of Tour De Force To Any Photographs That Succeed In The Search.

[the] Arresting Of Time Is Photography's Unique Capacity, And The Decision Of When To Click The Shutter Is The Photographer's Chief Responsibility.

Malice Remains Its Animating Impulse.

Fidelity To The Subject's Thought And To His Characteristic Way Of Expressing Himself Is The Sine Qua Non Of Journalistic Quotation.

Analysts Keep Having To Pick Away At The Scab That The Patient Tries To Form Between Himself And The Analyst To Cover Over His Wounds. The Analyst Keeps The Surface Raw, So That The Wound Will Heal Properly.

A Lawsuit Is To Ordinary Life What War Is To Peacetime. In A Lawsuit, Everybody On The Other Side Is Bad. A Trial Transcript Is A Discourse In Malevolence.