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

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

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.

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.

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

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.