What I'm trying to describe is that it's impossible to get out of your skin into somebody else's.... That somebody else's tragedy is not the same as your own.

Diane Arbus
About This Quote

"Getting out of your skin" is the action of separating yourself from what you are in order to fully understand or experience another person's life. In a way, this is a very sad notion because it means that we all walk around with a weight of ourselves on our shoulders. It causes us to make judgments without knowing all the facts, affects us to the point where we feel like strangers to ourselves, and makes us keep everyone at a distance instead of building relationships. "Somewhere inside me is a stranger who keeps me from getting close to other human beings. In fact, I don't even think I'm really me." The idea that we can't get out of our own skin refers to the idea that we will never truly know another person because we cannot understand their life without first understanding ourselves.

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More Quotes By Diane Arbus
  1. The thing that's important to know is that you never know. You're always sort of feeling your way.
  2. Most people go through life dreading they'll have a traumatic experience. Freaks were born with their trauma. They've already passed their test in life. They're aristocrats.
  3. Ladies and Gentlemen, take my advice, pull down your pants and slide on the ice.
  4. A picture is a secret about a secret, the more it tells you the less you know.
  5. One thing that struck me early is that you don’t put into a photograph what’s going to come out. Or, vice versa, what comes out is not what you put in.
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