I have a deep-seated distrust and even contempt for people who are driven by ambition to conquer the world … those who cannot control themselves and produce vast amounts of crap that no one cares about. I find it unattractive. I like the Zen artists: they’d do some work, and then they’d stop for a while.

In order to build a career and to be successful, one has to be determined. One has to be ambitious. I much prefer to drink coffee, listen to music and to paint when I feel like it.

When we do not know why the photographer has taken a picture and when we do not know why we are looking at it, all of a sudden we discover something that we start seeing. I like this confusion.

Seeing is a neglected enterprise.

I go out to take a walk, I see something, I take a picture. I take photographs. I have avoided profound explanations of what I do.

If I’d only known which [photographs] would be very good and liked, I wouldn’t have had to do all the thousands of others.

A window covered with raindrops interests me more than a photograph of a famous person.