I like to look at pictures, all kinds. And all those things you absorb come out subconsciously one way or another. You'll be taking photographs and suddenly know that you have resources from having looked at a lot of them before. There is no way you can avoid this. But this kind of subconscious influence is good, and it certainly can work for one. In fact, the more pictures you see, the better you are as a photographer.

I went into photography because it seemed like the perfect vehicle for commenting on the madness of today's existence.

I just try to live my life and do my thing.

I don't like that particular word 'shocking.' I'm looking for the unexpected. I'm looking for things I've never seen before … I was in a position to take those pictures. I felt an obligation to do them.

Sell the public flowers... things that they can hang on their walls without being uptight.

I've never lied. I think I've lived a moral life.

I became the toast of London. A lot of people I met came from these really decadent families where the married men were gay and no one thought anything about it.