Yes, photography saved my life. Every time I go through something scary, traumatic, I survive by taking pictures.

I was recently interviewed for radio in relation to the "Thanksgiving" show [2001] at the Saatchi gallery that I was part of. The interviewer said that people in London were very disturbed that I showed a picture of myself battered ("Nan One Month after Being Battered", 1984) and they thought that I set it up. I was accused of deliberately putting on a wig for that particular picture.

I also photographed Maggie Cheung - but these didn't develop into a friendship either.

Usually people just do their own work. But I want to deal with the place and what it means to show in a mental hospital.

I'm not ashamed of my body and you know everything in the fashion world, if I was vulnerable to it, could drive me crazy. I think it produces so much self-hatred.

I don't think of Maria Schneider like idol anymore, because I worshipped her when I was young.

No Jews have our own guilt, that's why we have psychiatrists - the Jewish version of a priest.