You have a 45mm automatic pistol on your lap, and I have a 35mm camera on my lap, and my weapon is just as powerful as yours. (To Black Panther militant Eldridge Cleaver)

You know, the camera is not meant just to show misery. You can show things that you like about the universe, things that you hate about the universe. It's capable of doing both.

I was born to a black childhood of confusion and poverty. The memory of that beginning influences my work today, It is impossible now to photograph a hungry child without remembering the hunger of my old childhood.

I think maybe the rural influence in my life helped me in a sense, of knowing how to get close to people and talk to them and get my work done.

The camera could be a very powerful instrument against discrimination, against poverty, against racism.

Enthusiasm is the electricity of life. How do you get it? You act enthusiastic until you make it a habit.

I bought my first camera in Seattle, Washington. Only paid about seven dollars and fifty cents for it.