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.

I love the idea I can go off with a single camera and a few rolls of film unencumbered... I was not interested in the illusion of reality, I wanted to get close to what was happening.

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

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

Lesson number one: Pay attention to the intrusion of the camera.

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.

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.