You know, a documentary is only interesting once in a while. If you look at a whole book of Dorothea [Lange]'s where she has row after row of people bending over and digging out carrots - that can be very tedious. And so it's only once in a while that something happens that is worth doing.

Oh, you ask me, what is the greatest torture of a person who does portraits for a living? I could fill several volumes with nice nasty stories. I don't know.

I was brought up on art. My father thought I had a great hand at art and sent me to art school. But he did not want me to become a photographer.

I'd never kill myself for a man. I wouldn't do it for anybody.

Some people say to me, Isn't it too bad that people discovered you so late? I never thought that.

I wasn't very ambitious. I think that's the solution. I just took things as they came. I wouldn't say I didn't have any problem, but I didn't care. I didn't think I was going to save the world by doing photography as some of these people do. I was just having a good time doing it, and so I still had a good time no matter what I had to photograph.

I was invited to photograph Hollywood. They asked me what I would like to photograph. I said, Ugly men.