The instrument is not the camera but the photographer.

I don't see anybody as either ordinary or extraordinary. I see them simply as people in front of my lens.

What do you hang on the walls of your mind?

I came to photography by accident.

I have been poor and I wanted to document poverty; I had lost a child and I was obsessed with birth; I was interested in politics and I wanted to know how it affected our lives; I am a woman and I wanted to know about women.

If you are careful with people, they will offer you part of themselves. That is the big secret.

What has changed is that when I photographed, most people that I photographed didn't have the right of refusal on their work. It would take a Marilyn Monroe at her height to be able to dictate that.