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

What I have tried to do is involve the people I was photographing... if they were willing to give, I was willing to photograph.

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

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.

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.

You should never reveal your true age.

I didn't want to be a woman photographer. That would limit me. I wanted to be a photographer who was a woman, with all the world open to my camera.