I spent a great deal of my life being ignored. I was always very happy that way. Being ignored is a great privilege. That is how I think I learned to see what others do not see and to react to situations differently. I simply looked at the world, not really prepared for anything.

I admired a tremendous number of photographers, but for some reason I arrived at a point of view of my own.

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.

I don’t have a philosophy. I have a camera.

Photography allows you to learn to look and see. You begin to see things you'd never paid attention to.

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.

The important thing in life is not what you get, but what you throw out.