I was always trying to take art photographs, but the most interesting pictures were the snapshots. The artsy pictures were boring, always.

This is what it is the business of the artist to do. Art is theft, art is armed robbery, art is not pleasing your mother.

[Richard Avedon's] camera dwells on the horrible things that age can do to people's faces - on the flabby flesh, the slack skin, the ugly growths, the puffy eyes, the knotted necks, the aimless wrinkles, the fearful and anxious set of the mouth, the marks left by sickness, madness, alcoholism, and irreversible disappointment.

[The] arresting of time is photography's unique capacity, and the decision of when to click the shutter is the photographer's chief responsibility.

There are good photographers who might elevate themselves to the ranks of the great simply by burning most of their work.

The writer, like the murderer, needs a motive.

Writing cannot be done in a state of desirelessness.