I had said that when the first Bush got elected that I would leave the country. And when the second Bush wasn't even elected properly.

I used to think that I could never lose anyone if I photographed them enough. In fact, my pictures show me how much I’ve lost.

My desire is to preserve the sense of people’s lives, to endow them with the strength and beauty I see in them. I want the people in my pictures to stare back.

For me it is not a detachment to take a picture. It's a way of touching somebody - it's a caress… I think that you can actually give people access to their own soul.

I always thought if I photographed anyone or anything enough, I would never lose the person, I would never lose the memory, I would never lose the place. But the pictures show me how much I've lost.

Yes, photography saved my life. Every time I go through something scary, traumatic, I survive by taking pictures.

I knew from a very early age, that what I saw on tv had nothing to do with real life. So I wanted to make a record of real life. That included having a camera with me at all times.

I just get inspired to take a picture by the beauty and vulnerability of my friends.

My work is mostly about memory. It is very important to me that everybody that I have been close to in my life I make photographs of them.

I think the wrong things are kept private

My work shows the beauty in so many different kinds of people because I never photograph anyone who I don't think is beautiful. I never take an intentionally mean picture.

Fear produces action, but would never create followers

We eat junk because it's cheap and it lights up the pleasure centers of our brain. And we do drugs because it's an effective way to feel good or escape something.

He may be my half brother, but we're not related. A chasm of incommunicable worlds lies between us.

Conflict is the essence of the self.

Nearness to nature... keeps the spirit sensitive to impressions not commonly felt and in touch with the unseen powers.

You need your mom and dad to protect you. It means they love you so much.

Murder is an inherently evil act, no matter what the circumstances, no matter how convincing the rationalizations.

My music teacher told me that she didn't even know why I was going to college - I should be a stand-up.

Who partakes in another's joys is a more humane character than he who partakes in his griefs.

I don't want to sound as if I'm doing something tremendously special. But I am a jazz fan.