I wasn't captivated by the romance of Paris or London. I love visiting, but I'd rather be in L.A.

I don't watch TV, so I feel like I'm left out of the American fabric or something.

I'd read about Los Angeles and this fact stuck in my mind: that the city gained 1,000 new people every day. In 1956! A thousand people every day! I felt: 'I want to be part of that.

I'm interested in glorifying something that we in the world would say doesn't deserve being glorified. Something that's forgotten, focused on as though it were some sort of sacred object.

My pictures are not that interesting, nor the subject matter. They are simply a collection of facts; my book is more like a collection of Ready-mades.

All my artistic response comes from American things, and I guess I've always had a weakness for heroic imagery.

I believe in intuition and approaching things as instant gratification. Just do the things you want to do, make the kind of pictures you want to make.