I realize that I had the best of serious picture journalism.

I didn't want to be a woman photographer. That would limit me. I wanted to be a photographer who was a woman, with all the world open to my camera.

Recording sessions were stimulating to photograph, because everything was in motion: the subject, the musicians, the technicians and the photographer. You needed fast reflexes to keep up with moving targets, and sensitivity and skill to get the pictures while keeping out of the performers' eyeline so as not to break their concentration.

The instrument is not the camera but the photographer.

It's the hardest thing in the world to take the mundane and try to show how special it is.

I found a way of working which pleased me because I didn’t have to frighten people with heavy equipment. It was that little black box and me.

I realize that I had the best of serious picture journalism.