For me there are no rules. I think I learned that from artists-from painters and sculptors. It took photography a while to catch up to them.

I was over self-medicating back when I was a kid and didn't know it.

At the end of the day, what I show is real life. I tell the truth. And the truth can be shocking.

When I was growing up, all the films about teenagers were played by Tony Curtis or John Cassavetes when they were 27, 28 years old. We would see these teenage movies in the theaters and I would say, "They don't look like they're my age at all." So I wanted to make a movie that was real and I wanted to make a movie that wasn't about me.

For me there are no rules. I think I learned that from artists-from painters and sculptors. It took photography a while to catch up to them.

I am a storyteller. I've never been interested in just taking the single image and moving on. I always like to stay with the people I'm photographing for long periods of time.

I've always been interested in people that you wouldn't see otherwise. If you look back at my books, photographs, and films-and since I'm doing this retrospective I've been forced to look back-the work is always about a small group of people who are somewhat isolated, and who you would never see if I didn't film or photograph them.