Photography... is either an expression of a cosmic vision, an embodiment of a life movement or it is nothing - to me. (1919)

I think of myself as an explorer who has spent his life on a long voyage of discovery.

Did I express my personality? I think that's quite unimportant because it's not people's selves but what they have to say about life that's important.

And if you can find out something about the laws of your own growth and vision as well as those of photography you may be able to relate the two, create an object that has a life of its own, which transcends craftsmanship. That is a long road, and because it must be your own road nobody can teach it to you or find it for you. There are no shortcuts, no rules.

If Ansel Adams gets a thousand dollars a print, I want ten thousand.

The artist's world is limitless. It can be found anywhere, far from where he lives or a few feet away. It is always on his doorstep.

Cartier-Bresson has said that photography seizes a 'decisive moment', that's true except that it shouldn't be taken too narrowly...does my picture of a cobweb in the rain represent a decisive moment? The exposure time was probably three or four minutes. That's a pretty long moment. I would say the decisive moment in that case was the moment in which I saw this thing and decided I wanted to photograph it.