If I can say one thing for my pictures, it is a certain craftsmanship. A thought which has gone into every angle. There is nothing there without an optical reason.

My idea at this time, which was slowly developing, was to create a comedie humaine with little people, average people - samples from every period in American life.

I considered that the homes that people live in exactly describe their lives.

You have to think with the heart.

For a house, somewhere near Los Angeles I found an old church. Very old, no longer used. So we moved the church to the land, and I took off the steeple, and I got my hands dirty.

There is a wonderful expression: seeing through a glass darkly. Everything, even life, is inevitably removed from you. You can't reach, or touch, the real. You just see reflections

I think the great artists (..) have always thought with the heart.