Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus

Diane Arbus:
Why don't you tell a secret?

Diane Arbus:
Why did you throw down the key?

Lionel Sweeney:
You looked like you needed to come up to my place.

Lionel Sweeney:
Cookie?

Diane Arbus:
Why isn't she your girlfriend?

Lionel Sweeney:
She doesn't touch me.

Diane Arbus:
I want to take a portrait of you and your wife.

Lionel Sweeney:
I don't have a wife.

Diane Arbus:
Then I want to take a portrait of you. Just you.

Lionel Sweeney:
Why do you want to take a portrait of someone you've never seen, Diane?

Diane Arbus:
What is it?

Lionel Sweeney:
Well, every month or so I'm able to breathe about five percent less. My lungs are disintegrating. It's getting harder and harder for me to breathe... deeply. In a matter of months, I'll drown without even swimming, because there'll be nothing left... of my lungs.

Diane Arbus:
You're not dying.

Lionel Sweeney:
Yes, I am.

Diane Arbus:
No, you're not.

Lionel Sweeney:
[holding an inflatable raft] I blew this up for you.

Diane Arbus:
Why did you want me to shave you? Hmm? Why?

Lionel Sweeney:
So I could swim out further.

Diane Arbus:
Swim out?

Lionel Sweeney:
Yes.

Diane Arbus:
What are you saying?

Lionel Sweeney:
[he struggles for words] That I want you with me.

Diane Arbus:
What?

Lionel Sweeney:
Diane.

Diane Arbus:
What are you talking about? You want me to watch you die?

Lionel Sweeney:
I want you with me, that's all.

Diane Arbus:
But is this what you did? Made me fall in love with you to watch you...

Lionel Sweeney:
I don't see it that way at all. I love you.

Man:
What do you photograph?

Diane Arbus:
Me? Oh no, I'm not the photographer. My husband is.

Diane Arbus:
[to Lionel] I saw you through my window and right away I wanted to take a portrait of you.

Lionel Sweeney:
[to Diane] Are you trying to seduce me?

Lionel Sweeney:
You saw me the night I moved in, remember?

Diane Arbus:
Yes.

Lionel Sweeney:
I definitely saw you. You trying to seduce me, Diane?

Diane Arbus:
No, no.

Lionel Sweeney:
No?

Diane Arbus:
God, no.

Lionel Sweeney:
Is that why you came up here in the middle of the night?

Diane Arbus:
I, um... Well, I would like to, uh, I'd like to take a portrait of you and your... your wife.

Lionel Sweeney:
I don't have a wife.

Diane Arbus:
Well then, I would like to take a portrait of you, just you.