It began when I was so ill that there was a good chance of dying. I promised myself that if I survived I would never again pander to a magazine's requests or follow the ideas of art directors. I would only make images which were personal, which arose out of my own life.

The desire to discover, the desire to move, to capture the flavor, three concepts that describe the art of photography.

There must be a certain look of availability in the women I photograph. I think the woman who gives the appearance of being available is sexually much more exciting than a woman who's completely distant. This sense of availability I find erotic.

The photographs don't arouse me. All I can think about is the hard work it took to make them.

Genius and taste don't go together.

It's that I don't like white paper backgrounds. A woman does not live in front of white paper. She lives on the street, in a motor car, in a hotel room.

My job as a portrait photographer is to seduce, amuse and entertain.