...one day I was speculating on how I would like to look back on life and I decided I wanted to feel that I was a photographer rather than a teacher. As simple as that.

Life as it unfolds in front of the camera is full of so much complexity, wonder and surprise that I find it unnecessary to create new realities. There is more pleasure, for me, in things as-they-are.

These are the two basic controls at the photographer's command--positi on and timing--all others are extensions, peripheral ones, compared to them

For me photography is an excuse to be nosy about things I want to know about.

Learn from the best; the second raters have nothing to offer.

The destination of the photograph is to reveal what something or somebody looked like, under a particular set of conditions, at a particular moment in time, and to transmit the results to others.

There are many forms of photography. I consider myself simply a recorder of that which I find of interest around me. I personally have no desire to create or stage direct ideas.

The most important piece of equipment after the camera is a good pair of shoes.

I'm a photographer, obviously. My chosen tool for understanding life, and communicating the results of this search to others, is the camera.

You are not a photographer because you are interested in photography.

I think of myself as a reportage photographer. I like the word. It implies a personal account of an observed event with connotations of subjectivity but honesty. It is eye-witness photography.

Character building begins in our infancy and continues until death.

What I write is different from what I say, what I say is different from what I think, what I think is different from what I ought to think and so it goes further into the deepest darkness.

Avoid the Holy Grail, the heroic journeys, the pursuit of a legend--that is not the life of the bookaneer, who must keep his eyes on the ground while other book people live by dreaming.

I think we all know that quarterbacks, kickers, specialists have certain preferences on footballs. They know a lot more about it than I do. They're a lot more sensitive to it than I am.

When you're on stage with an audience, the director's nowhere to be seen. He's onto the next job.

Art is enchantment and artists have the right of spells.

You have to invest if you want to restore balance to the world.

I'm a nice guy, but I like to get into trouble.

In shame there is no comfort but to be beyond all bounds of shame.

Evolutionary psychology is one of four sciences that are bringing human nature back into the picture.