I'm very flattered when people I respect like my work. It's like a dream of a little kid when somebody I idolised likes my work.

My life is more important. At this point in my life I'm alone. I don't think about it a lot.

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 did [heroin] maybe when I was 18 but I got over that pretty quickly.

I just get inspired to take a picture by the beauty and vulnerability of my friends.

The idea that a fashion photograph could make you cry doesn't happen. And I'm proud to say that my slideshows can make people cry.

I remember so many girls when I was growing up who hated the way they looked.