My portraits are more about me than they are about the people I photograph.

A portrait isn't a fact but an opinion - an occasion rather than a truth.

The pictures have a reality for me that the people don't. It is through the photographs that I know them.

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

There was no such person as Marilyn Monroe. Marilyn Monroe was an invention of hers. A genius invention that she created, like an author creates a character. She understood photography, and she also understood what makes a great photograph. She related to it as if she were giving a performance. She gave more to the still camera than any actress-any woman- I've ever photographed.

The moment an emotion or fact is transformed into a photograph it is no longer a fact but an opinion.

I see pictures of myself and I always knew that what I was feeling didn't look like that guy in the pictures.