I like to feel dumb. That’s how I know there’s more in the world than me.

I love to read the way people love to watch television.

My own view is that one cannot be religious in general any more than one can speak language in general; at any given moment one speaks French or English or Swahili or Japanese, but not 'language.

Fear binds people together. And fear disperses them. Courage inspires communities: the courage of an example - for courage is as contagious as fear. But courage, certain kinds of courage, can also isolate the brave.

A photograph is not only an image (as a painting is an image), an interpretation of the real; it is also a trace, something directly stenciled off the real, like a footprint or a death mask.

When Cartier-Bresson goes to China, he shows that there are people in China, and that they are Chinese.

The writer is either a practicing recluse or a delinquent, guilt-ridden one--or both. Usually both.