I never use a telephoto lens. I need to be close to people. I need their complicity; I need them to be aware that I am there taking their picture. I hate paparazzi.

The unconscious obsession that we photographers have is that wherever we go we want to find the theme that we carry inside ourselves.

In the end, photography for me is just an excuse to get to know the world.

What the eye sees is a synthesis of who you are and all you have learned. This is what I would call the language of photography.

A photographer without imagination is not a good photographer.

I think that any photographer is an investigator. Photography is a pretext to know the world, to know life. To know yourself.

When I'm taking pictures I even forget that I have a camera. When I shoot I forget about everything. Light comes, death comes, people go in and out in costume - and it's like a play.

I love poetry, be it in music or be it in Andrei Tarkovsky, Francesca Woodman or anyone else, I just love poetry.

As an artist you need to move on, you need to try new things.

In a way my work is documentary. But I am also a photographer who has a distinct style. My photographs are a companion to the reality of the situation.

But when you choose your family, you get to choose how it is between you, too.

You have immense power--power to overcome, power to achieve, power to possess, and power to prosper, making you incredibly irresistible.

We are at that age that balances between independence and conferring with your friends about every miniscule decision you make. I've never liked that part of adolescence.

Binding emissions targets for the developing nations are out of the question.

The underlying sickness of human life is an unwillingness to look with open eyes at the condition of the world.

It doesn't matter whether you're black, Hispanic, white. They're all in the same boat.

We're living in an unprecedented day (when) evil is no longer evil. We've changed the terminology-- iniquity is now infirmity; wickedness is now weakness; devilry is now deficiency.

The little birds have God for their caterer.

Violence is one of the most fun things to watch.

The problem with certainty is that sometimes it can sound cold and heartless, although it is the most compassionate and supportive answer.