I many times encountered courage, real courage. Undeniable courage. I've heard it said that that was the highest quality of the human animal. I encountered that many times, in unexpected places. And I have learned to recognize it when I see it.

Ours is a time of the machine, and ours is a need to know that the machine can be put to creative human effort. If not, the machine can destroy us.

No country has ever closely scrutinized itself visually ... I know what we could make of it if people only thought we could dare look at ourselves.

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

Photographers stop photographing a subject too soon before they have exhausted the possibilities.

We know by now how to photograph poor people. What we don't know is how to photograph affluence - whose other face is poverty.

To me, beauty appears when one feels deeply, and art is an act of total attention.