And I think that after nearly 85 years upon this planet that I have a right after working so hard at showing the desolation and the poverty, to show something beautiful for somebody as well.

I saw that the camera could be a weapon against poverty, against racism, against all sorts of social wrongs. I knew at that point I had to have a camera.

The guy who takes a chance, who walks the line between the known and unknown, who is unafraid of failure, will succeed.

I feel it is the heart, not the eye, that should determine the content of the photograph. What the eye sees is its own. What the heart can perceive is a very different matter.

Enthusiasm is the electricity of life. How do you get it? You act enthusiastic until you make it a habit.

At first I wasn't sure that I had the talent, but I did know I had a fear of failure, and that fear compelled me to fight off anything that might abet it.

Nothing came easy. I was just born with a need to explore every part of my mind. And with long searching and hard work, I became devoted to my restlessness.

You have a 45mm automatic pistol on your lap, and I have a 35mm camera on my lap, and my weapon is just as powerful as yours. (To Black Panther militant Eldridge Cleaver)

I picked up a camera because it was my choice of weapons against what I hated most about the universe: racism, intolerance, poverty.

If you don't have anything to say, your photographs aren't going to say much.

The subject matter is so much more important than the photographer.

There have been two great narcotics in European civilisation: Christianity and alcohol.

Linux is a superbly polished copy of an antique - shinier than the original, perhaps, but still defined by it.

Y are you called the cheese man?

Look wise say nothing and grunt. Speech was given to conceal thought.

Have dreams/goals and never quit working toward achieving them.

I think being individual in the show business is what gives you life and longevity.

Animal crackers, and cocoa to drink That is the finest of suppers, I think When I'm grown up and can have what I please, I think I shall always insist upon these.

And remember, even when you can't sing, you can always plant a tree

You forget that the kingdom of heaven suffers violence: and the kingdom of heaven is like a woman.

Every life is, more or less, a ruin among whose debris we have to discover what the person ought to have been.