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

I realise that I had the best of serious picture journalism. There was an innocence in our approach, especially in the 1950s and 1960s when we naively believed that by holding a mirror up to the world we could help - no matter how little - to make people aware of the human condition.

What do you hang on the walls of your mind?

Themes recur again and again in my work.

It doesn't matter if you use a box camera or you use a Leica; the important thing is what motivates you when you are photographing.

You can't make a great musician or a great photographer if the magic isn't there.

I look for a sense of reality with everything I did. I didn't work in a studio, I didn't light anything. 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 and £5 worth of film in my pocket or maybe it was only £2 in those days.