Everything should be understood, and anything can be transformed - that is the modern view.

The truth is always something that is told, not something that is known. If there were no speaking or writing, there would be no truth about anything. There would only be what is.

We live in a world of copies and we're fascinated when we encounter the originals (in a museum, for instance).

I haven't been everywhere, but it's on my list.

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

Compassion is an unstable emotion. It needs to be translated into action, or it withers. The question is what to do with the feelings that have been aroused, the knowledge that has been communicated. People don't become inured to what they are shown — if that's the right way to describe what happens — because of the quantity of images dumped on them. It is passivity that dulls feeling.

Although there is a sense in which the camera does indeed capture reality, not just interpret it, photographs are as much an interpretation of the world as paintings and drawings are