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

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

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

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.

If the chemistry is right between star and photographer and the geometry of the pictures pleases the star, often the two people end up with a long-term professional friendship during which they continue to work together and to produce highly personal images.

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.

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.