Quotes by Cecil Beaton

“San Francisco is perhaps the most European of all American cities”

“When you get tired of walking around San Francisco, you can always lean against it”

“No city invites the heart to come to life as San Francisco does. Arrival in San Francisco is an experience in living.”

“If youre alive, you cant be bored in San Francisco. If youre not alive, San Francisco will bring you to life.”

“More varied than any landscape was the landscape in the sky, with islands of gold and silver, peninsulas of apricot and rose against a background of many shades of turquoise and azure.”

“What is elegance? Soap and water!”

“Never in the history of fashion has so little material been raised so high to reveal so much that needs to be covered so badly.”

“Americans have an abiding belief in their ability to control reality by purely material means... airline insurance replaces the fear of death with the comforting prospect of cash.”

“I have the worst ear for criticism; even when I have created a stage set I like, I always hear the woman in the back of the dress circle who says she doesnt like blue.”

“An old Polish frog... with a huge casket of jewels... and she clicks her teeth and shrugs, Only Rubbish. Much more in Paris.”

“Oh, well, he couldnt do everything, could he?”

“On close inspection, this device turned out to be a funereal juke box - the result of mixing Lloyds of London with the principle of the chewing gum dispenser.”

“I cant afford a whole new set of enemies.”

“If youre going to San Francisco, Be sure to wear some flowers in your hair”

After twenty annual visits I am still surprised each time I return to see this giant asparagus bed of alabaster and rose and green skyscrapers.

Perhaps the worlds second worst crime is boredom. The first is being a bore.