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

The instrument is not the camera but the photographer.

It doesn’t matter if you use a box camera or a Leica, the important thing is what motivates you when you are photographing. What I have tried to do is involve the people I was photographing. To have them realize without saying so, that it was up to them to give me whatever they wanted to give me . . . if they were willing to give, I was willing to photograph.

What do you hang on the walls of your mind?

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

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.

What you need to be a good photographer is an overwhelming curiosity and a good digestion.