Even more than comparing society to a family, comparing it to a body makes an authoritarian ordering of society seem inevitable, immutable.

The ratio of authentic literature to trash in pornography may be somewhat lower than the ratio of novels of genuine literary meritto the entire volume of sub-literary fiction produced for mass taste. But it is probably not lower than, for instance, that of another somewhat shady sub-genre with a few first-rate books to its credit, science fiction.

Making social comment is an artificial place for an artist to start from. If an artist is touched by some social condition, what the artist creates will reflect that, but you can't force it.

AIDS occupies such a large part in our awareness because of what it has been taken to represent. It seems the very model of all the catastrophes privileged populations feel await them.

It is passivity that dulls feeling.

As photographs give people an imaginary possession of a past that is unreal, they also help people to take possession of space in which they are insecure.

All photographs aspire to the condition of being memorable - that is, unforgettable.