I'm an amateur photographer, apart from being a professional one, and I think maybe my amateur pictures are the better ones.

You must have a visual sense if you want to be a photographer. It is a very subtle thing, this visual business.

Photography is a craft. Anyone can learn a craft with normal intelligence and application. To take it beyond the craft is something else. That's when magic comes in. And I don't know that there's any explanation for that.

I like to think I keep my mind open. When I walk the streets I don't look for anything in particular. I come from a philosophy that believes you shouldn't have preconceived notions - that you don't need a gimmick. That you should just photograph what you react to - what you see.

Making people laugh is one of the highest achievements you can have. And when you can make someone laugh and cry, alternatively, as Chaplin does - now that's the highest of all personal achievements. I don't know that I aim for it, but I recognize it as the supreme goal.

The best things happen when you just happen to be somewhere with a camera.

You don't study photography, you just do it.