I know the most important faculty to develop is one for hard, continuous and varied work and living; but the difference between knowing this and doing anything consistent about it is often abysmal.

The goal is the same: life itself; and the price is the same; life itself.

The mere attempt to examine my own confusion would consume volumes.

You must be in tune with the times and prepared to break with tradition.

The artist's task is not to alter the world as the eye sees it into a world of aesthetic reality, but to perceive the aesthetic reality within the actual reality. (On photographs by Helen Levitt)

Isn’t every human being both a scientist and an artist; and in writing of human experience, isn’t there a good deal to be said for recognizing that fact and for using both methods?

Some people get where they hope to in this world. Most of us don't.

You've got to bear it in mind that nobody that ever lived is specially privileged; the axe can fall at any moment, on any neck, without any warning or any regard for justice.

I'm very anxious not to fall into archaism or 'literary' diction. I want my vocabulary to have a very large range, but the words must be alive.

A mother never realizes that her children are no longer children.

The camera seems to me, next to unassisted and weaponless consciousness, the central instrument of our time.

If you're waiting for encouragement from others, you're doing it wrong. By the time people think an idea is good, it's probably too late.

The gospel always comes to people in cultural robes. There is no such thing as a ‘pure’ gospel, isolated from culture

See karma, make dharma

Getting fit is a political act - you are taking charge of your life.

Weather in towns is like a skylark in a counting-house-out of place and in the way.

That's a big battle to win, to be able to do a main title sequence and a theme song these days. That's not something network television does anymore.

The poet is the one who breaks through our habits.

A kindly gesture bestowed by us on an animal arouses prodigies of understanding and gratitude.

Wisdom belongs in wonder.

Such is the love of praise, so great the anxiety for victory.