What the art historians had forgotten is that in Chinese, Japanese, Persian, and Indian art, they never painted shadows. Why did they paint shadows in European art? Shadows are because of optics. Optics need shadows and strong light. Strong light makes the deepest shadows. It took me a few years to realize fully that the art historians didn't grasp that. There are a lot of interesting new things, ideas, pictures.

You can't name the inventor of the camera. The 19th-century invention was chemical: the fixative.

You can't believe any picture nowadays, if it's digital. You can't really believe. If you see me shaking hands with Mr. [Barack] Obama, it doesn't mean I ever met him, does it?

Well you can't teach the poetry, but you can teach the craft.

Photography sees surfaces, it doesn't see space. We see space but the camera doesn't.

As you get older, it gets a bit harder to keep the spontaneity in you, but I work at it.

The picture itself is a document. How do you mean? We're looking at a document. It gives you clues.