"Once I was walking from The Mercer in New York - because otherwise I don't walk anywhere - and this woman paparazzo who was following me fell over a fire hydrant and her whole tooth went through her lip. I leant over her, saying, 'Are you all right?' and she was still taking pictures"
About this Quote
The scene is brutal in its simplicity. A paparazzo literally injures herself chasing Moss, her tooth "went through her lip" - visceral, almost cartoonishly specific - and even that doesn’t interrupt the job. Moss leans in with a human question ("Are you all right?") and meets a mechanical response: still taking pictures. That contrast does the heavy lifting. It frames celebrity as a situation where basic social scripts fail, where compassion becomes just another moment to capture.
There’s subtextual revenge here, too, but it’s delivered without bitterness: the pursuer is undone by her own pursuit. Yet Moss doesn’t claim victory; she documents the absurdity. The intent feels less like complaining about paparazzi than exposing the distorted incentives of the fame economy: pain doesn’t stop the feed, injury doesn’t cancel the assignment, and proximity to celebrity overrides self-preservation.
Context matters: Moss is a defining face of 90s-2000s tabloid culture, a person turned into an image. Her punchline isn’t that paparazzi are monstrous; it’s that the system makes everyone act a little inhuman, including the one being hunted.
Quote Details
| Topic | Funny |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Moss, Kate. (2026, January 15). Once I was walking from The Mercer in New York - because otherwise I don't walk anywhere - and this woman paparazzo who was following me fell over a fire hydrant and her whole tooth went through her lip. I leant over her, saying, 'Are you all right?' and she was still taking pictures. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/once-i-was-walking-from-the-mercer-in-new-york--78788/
Chicago Style
Moss, Kate. "Once I was walking from The Mercer in New York - because otherwise I don't walk anywhere - and this woman paparazzo who was following me fell over a fire hydrant and her whole tooth went through her lip. I leant over her, saying, 'Are you all right?' and she was still taking pictures." FixQuotes. January 15, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/once-i-was-walking-from-the-mercer-in-new-york--78788/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"Once I was walking from The Mercer in New York - because otherwise I don't walk anywhere - and this woman paparazzo who was following me fell over a fire hydrant and her whole tooth went through her lip. I leant over her, saying, 'Are you all right?' and she was still taking pictures." FixQuotes, 15 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/once-i-was-walking-from-the-mercer-in-new-york--78788/. Accessed 8 Feb. 2026.








