Photography takes an instant out of time, altering life by holding it still.

... it came to me that what I had to do was to take pictures and concentrate upon people, only people, all kinds of people, people who paid me and people who didn't.

To know ahead of time what you're looking for means you're then only photographing your own preconceptions, which is very limiting, and often false.

Pick a theme and work it to exhaustion... the subject must be something you truly love or truly hate.

This benefit of seeing...can come only if you pause a while, extricate yourself from the maddening mob of quick impressions ceaselessly battering our lives, and look thoughtfully at a quiet image...the viewer must be willing to pause, to look again, to meditate.

The words that come direct from the people are the greatest.If you substitute one out of your own vocabulary, it disappears before your eyes.

I had to get my camera to register things that were more important than how poor they were--their pride, their strength, their spirit.