Just as I work with paints, brushes, and canvas, I work with the light, pieces of glass and chemistry.

A camera alone does not make a picture. To make a picture you need a camera, a photographer and above all a subject. It is the subject that determines the interest of the photograph.

Each one of us, in his timidity, has a limit beyond which he is outraged. It is inevitable that he who by concentrated application has extended this limit for himself, should arouse the resentment of those who have accepted conventions which, since accepted by all, require no initiative of application. And this resentment generally takes the form of meaningless laughter or of criticism, if not persecution.

I paint what cannot be photographed, that which comes from the imagination or from dreams, or from an unconscious drive.

Is photography an art? There is no point in trying to find out if it is an art. Art is old-fashioned. We need something else.

Speaking of nudes, I have always had a great fondness for this subject, both in my paintings and in my photos, and I must admit, not for purely artistic reasons.

If I'd had the nerve, I'd have become a thief or a gangster, but since I didn't, I became a photographer.