Voyeurs Quotes

Most of us will. We'll choose knowledge no matter what, we'll maim ourselves in the process, we'll stick our hands into the flames for it if necessary. Curiosity is not our only motive: love or grief or despair or hatred is what drives us on. We'll spy relentlessly on the dead: we'll open their letters, we'll read their journals, we'll go through their trash, hoping for a hint, a final word, an explanation, from those who have deserted us--who've left us holding the bag, which is often a good deal emptier than we'd supposed.

But what about those who plant such clues, for us to stumble on? Why do they bother? Egotism? Pity? Revenge? A simple claim to existence, like scribbling your initials on a washroom wall? The combination of presence and anonymity--confession without penance, truth without consequences--it has its attractions. Getting the blood off your hands, one way or another.

Those who leave such evidence can scarcely complain if strangers come along afterwards and poke their noses into every single thing that would once have been none of their business. And not only strangers: lovers, friends, relations. We're voyeurs, all of us. Why should we assume that anything in the past is ours for the taking, simply because we've found it? We're all grave robbers, once we open the doors locked by others.

But only locked. The rooms and their contents have been left intact. If those leaving them had wanted oblivion, there was always fire. ~ Margaret Atwood

Tragedy whores don't feel the foundation break apart beneath their feet - the reeling blast of emptiness, though to watch them you might think so. They're voyeurs. They feed like coffin flies on drama, embroiled in virtual grief and the illusion of heartbreak. They all have stories they want to tell, insist on telling, proclaiming their link to tragedy. Emotional rubberneckers. ~ Carole Radziwill

We photographers are nothing but a pack of crooks, thieves and voyeurs. We are to be found everywhere we are not wanted; we betray secrets that were never entrusted to us; we spy shamelessly on things that are not our business; And end up the hoarders of a vast quantity of stolen goods. ~ Brassai

Some even "peek through" their computer screens to see themselves on FB as others see them, in order to be sure of who they really are. In effect, they have become self-voyeurs! ~ Nicos Hadjicostis

People today are used to seeing not only the incredible but the impossible as well, all provided by the mega-pixel. We witness miracles and dismiss them as diversions. The line between reality and fantasy has been blurred to the point that we no longer know what it is we see, and so put little faith in the experience. And there is no darkness anymore, no place for things like mystery and magic to make their abode. There is nothing nowadays that is not exposed, caught on camera and pixilated to be stored and classified forever in some phantom zone called cyber space. Nothing is too small to remain unseen by our microscopes or too far away to be seen by our satellites. The world is a strumpet, every inch of her exposed and explored. Whether she is thrusting herself into the camera's gaze, or we as voyeurs intrude upon her most intimate moments, nothing is left to the imagination. The world today is all light and no darkness. But too much light can blind. An excess of it deprives our eyes from the necessary contrast required to give definition to what we see. The light precludes magic, gives us explanations in its place. It denies love and informs us of the chemicals in the brain that are active given certain conditions. We have gained knowledge but in the process we have been forced to surrender the very reasons we sought knowledge in the first place. ~ James Rozoff

That's where Time magazine lives ... way out there on the puzzled, masturbating edge, peering through the keyhole and selling what they see to the big wide world of Chamber of Commerce voyeurs who support the public prints. ~ Hunter S. Thompson

Radio listeners are voyeurs: lurking, invisible, eavesdropping. ~ Paul Fleischman

The audience should feel like voyeurs. Their response is absolutely crucial. ~ Alan Rickman

Ask me for money, Peter." I grabbed his wrists and pushed him against the wall.

He looked everywhere but at me, no attempt to free himself. He was definitely stronger than I, but right that second I didn't care if he was being patronizing. If it forced him to answer me, then patronizing I'd take.

"No," he murmured.

"Ask me for money, goddamn you." I punctuated it with a slam of his wrists, hard enough to jar, but not painful - I hoped. The next time my shirt wouldn't be there to cushion it. I was
that pissed.

"I have!" He spat back, easily extricating his hands and pushing me away. I grabbed his arm, turning him around.

"For Cai. For sex. Not for you. You'd rather go fuck a bunch of strangers - "

"I don't fuck anyone but Darryl anymore," he denied. "It's just a show for a bunch of voyeurs. No one gets hurt."

"I get hurt!"

"I don't have any other way, Austin."

"You have me. Ask me," I said, hating the pleading sound in my voice.

"No."

"Jesus Christ, why the fuck not?"

"Because I don't want you to be a fucking trick!" The shout was so loud I felt the vibrations along my spine. ~ Dani Alexander

Ast year's Best-Sex-Scene-in-a-film winner Vince Voyeur's real name turns out to be John LaForme. Rhetorical Q.: How, if one's real name was John LaForme, could that person possibly feel the need for a nom de guerre? ~ David Foster Wallace

Perhaps the only people with the right to look at images of suffering of this extreme order are those who could do something to alleviate it - say, the surgeons at the military hospital where the photograph was taken - or those who could learn from it. The rest of us are voyeurs, whether or not we mean to be. ~ Sontag, Susan

God is a tender pervert, and the angels are voyeurs. ~ Momus

Psychologists were such voyeurs. They got off on true-life confessions, and then expected us to trust them. Not likely. Grabbing ~ Skye Warren

Voyeurs have an open window on the world. ~ Ljupka Cvetanova

Most journalists are restless voyeurs who see the warts on the world, the imperfections in people and places ... gloom is their game, the spectacle their passion, normality their nemesis. ~ Gay Talese

I'm convinced we all are voyeurs. It's part of the detective thing. We want to know secrets and we want to know what goes on behind those windows. And not in a way that we would use to hurt anyone. There's an entertainment value to it, but at the same time we want to know: What do humans do? Do they do the same things as I do? It's a gaining of some sort of knowledge, I think. ~ David Lynch