I think photographs should be provocative and not tell you what you already know. It takes no great powers or magic to reproduce somebody's face in a photograph. The magic is in seeing people in new ways.

I believe in the imagination. What I cannot see is infinitely more important than what I can see.

Photography deals exquisitely with appearances, but nothing is what it appears to be.

Trust that little voice in your head that says 'Wouldn't it be interesting if...'; And then do it.

I think photographs should be provocative and not tell you what you already know. It takes no great powers or magic to reproduce somebody's face in a photograph. The magic is in seeing people in new ways.

A lot of photographers walk around looking for something 'out there,' but I'm very much interested in what's 'in here.'

All good children's books, I think, address metaphysical issues in some kind of way.

All good work has magic in it, and addresses the mind in a subtle way.

Art has to address eternal issues.

Even in the deepest love relationship - when lovers say 'I love you' to each other - we don't really know what we're saying, because language isn't equal to the complexity of human emotions.

I got a lot of flak originally for writing with photographs, because the great cliche in photography is that one photograph is worth a thousand words, and photographers are usually dodo birds anyway.

I still find doing portraits a terrific challenge, but even though I've done hundreds of them, I've never stopped questioning the very nature of portraiture because it deals exclusively with appearances. I've never believed people are what they look like and think it's impossible to really know what people are.

I think photographers are too polite. There is not enough anger in photography; it's pretty much trivialized.

I write in order to express what the photo itself cannot say. A photograph of my father doesn't tell me what I thought of him, which for me is much more important than what the man looked like.

I'm a terrible punster. And I love to rhyme. I just can't help myself.

In the West, people tend to look at life as spectators, but in the East, people are the thing.

My work is about my life as an event, and I find myself to be very temporal, transient.

People of my generation who became photographers in the late fifties, early sixties, there were no rewards in photography. There were no museum shows. Maybe MOMA would show something, or Chicago. There were no galleries. Nobody bought photographs.

Photographers usually want to photograph facts and things. But I'm interested in the nature of the thing itself. A photograph of someone sleeping tells me nothing about their dream state; a photograph of a corpse tells me nothing about the nature of death. My work is about my life as an event, and I find myself to be very temporal, transient.

Photography does deal with 'truth' or a kind of superficial reality better than any of the other arts, but it never questions the nature of reality - it simply reproduces reality. And what good is that when the things of real value in life are invisible?

Photography is very presumptuous. Photographers are always photographing other people's lives - something they know nothing about - and drawing great inferences into it.

The majority of photographers focus on the obvious. They believe and accept what their eyes tell them, and yet eyes know nothing.

The question of truth is forever in the air, and people look for it with particular fervor in art.

To fulfil a fantasy is the quickest way to destroy it.

To photograph reality is to photograph nothing.

Usually when painters use photographs, they enlarge and copy them and simply make a large, boring painting of a large, boring photograph.

You can't see fear or lust; you can't photograph someone's anxieties, how disappointment feels. Photographs are approximations.

Most portraits are lies. People are rarely what they appear to be, especially in front of a camera. You might know me your entire lifetime and never reveal yourself to me. To interpret wrinkles as character is insult not insight.

Roosevelt's magic lay in one facet of his personality: He knew how to take the risk. No other man in public life I knew could so readily take the challenge of the new.

It's not sometimes realistic to think that something magical can happen, but I think I look for the magic.

It seems inevitable that the magic of the written word will fade.

I love the magic of the studio.

The magic formula that successful businesses have discovered is to treat customers like guests and employees like people.

Magic becomes art when it has nothing to hide.

Better beware of notions like genius and inspiration; they are a sort of magic wand and should be used sparingly by anybody who wants to see things clearly.

There is a real magic in enthusiasm. It spells the difference between mediocrity and accomplishment.

Residuals from Australia, from the Mission Magic show, saved my butt. So there is a reason for everything.

Indubitably, magic is one of the subtlest and most difficult of the sciences and arts. There is more opportunity for errors of comprehension, judgment and practice than in any other branch of physics.

I think that the ideal space must contain elements of magic, serenity, sorcery and mystery.

The first time I sang with David Daniels... I had never performed with a countertenor before. That first time was magic, it was so beautiful. And he's such a great artist.

Burn down your cities and leave our farms, and your cities will spring up again as if by magic; but destroy our farms and the grass will grow in the streets of every city in the country.

It is the function of art to renew our perception. What we are familiar with we cease to see. The writer shakes up the familiar scene, and, as if by magic, we see a new meaning in it.

Movies are like magic tricks.

Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it.

So many plays with magic in them that would be a terrific invitation to an imaginative animation team.

It's just like magic. When you live by yourself, all of your annoying habits are gone.

Speeches are not magic and there is no great speech without great policy.

Alcohol is like love. The first kiss is magic, the second is intimate, the third is routine. After that you take the girl's clothes off.

I can write, He floated up to the ceiling, and a baby rabbit came out of his pocket, grew wings, and flew away. And you will believe that it really happened. That's magic, isn't it?