I never wanted to be called an artist. I wanted to be called a photographer.

It's not hard being great occasionally. It's difficult to be good consistently.

Sometimes I think all my pictures are just pictures of me.

And if a day goes by without my doing something related to photography, it's as though I've neglected something essential to my existence, as though I had forgotten to wake up. I know that the accident of my being a photographer has made my life possible.

I can see myself as a very old man in a terrific wheelchair. Only, I won't be photographing the tree outside my window, the way Steichen did. I'll be photographing other old people.

Photography has always reminded me of the second child.. trying to prove itself. The fact that it wasn't really considered an art.. that it was considered a craft.. has trapped almost every serious photographer.

My parents put the New Yorker in my crib. I saw Vogue and Vanity Fair around the house before I could read.