The subject matter is so much more important than the photographer.

I bought my first camera in Seattle, Washington. Only paid about seven dollars and fifty cents for it.

Washington, D.C. in 1942 was not the easiest place in the world for a Negro to get along.

And I think that after nearly 85 years upon this planet that I have a right after working so hard at showing the desolation and the poverty, to show something beautiful for somebody as well.

You know, the camera is not meant just to show misery.

But I was very disappointed that I didn't get a chance to go overseas with that group, might not have gotten back but I wanted very much to go because there's not much of a record of the exploits of the first Negro fighter group.

There's another horizon out there, one more horizon that you have to make for yourself and let other people discover it, and someone else will take it further on, you know.

The man at Kodak told me the shots were very good and if I kept it up, they would give me an exhibition. Later, Kodak gave me my first exhibition.

I've been with Life now for seventeen years and I have written several articles for them and will be doing more writing and do at least two assignments a year besides my writing.

So I went to Chicago in 1940, I think, '41, and the photographs that I made there, aside from fashion, were things that I was trying to express in a social conscious way.

The subject matter is so much more important than the photographer.

People in millenniums ahead will know what we were like in the 1930's and the thing that, the important major things that shaped our history at that time. This is as important for historic reasons as any other.

I suffered evils, but without allowing them to rob me of the freedom to expand.

I was there less than a year before I was assigned to the Paris bureau. I spent two years there and, in fact, before I even went on the staff I was sent to Europe to do assignments which they wouldn't normally do for a young photographer just starting out.

The photographer begins to feel big and bloated and so big he can't walk through one of these doors because he gets a good byline; he gets notices all over the world and so forth; but they're really - the important people are the people he photographs.

I think maybe the rural influence in my life helped me in a sense, of knowing how to get close to people and talk to them and get my work done.

But I do feel a little teeny right now that I'm just about ready to start, and winter is entering. Half past autumn has arrived.

And now, I feel at 85, I really feel that I'm just ready to start.

At first I wasn't sure that I had the talent, but I did know I had a fear of failure, and that fear compelled me to fight off anything that might abet it.

I'd become sort of involved in things that were happening to people. No matter what color they be, whether they be Indians, or Negroes, the poor white person or anyone who was I thought more or less getting a bad shake.

Enthusiasm is the electricity of life. How do you get it? You act enthusiastic until you make it a habit.

You know the camera is not meant just to show misery.

The camera could be a very powerful instrument against discrimination against poverty against racism.

Enthusiasm is the electricity of life. How do you get it You act enthusiastic until you make it a habit.

I'd sell my soul for a good cause.

One of the first essentials is a policy of unreserved political cooperation with all the nations of the world.

With a strong heart and a good mind, you can do it.

I think a lot of playwrights have a script in their bottom drawer that hopefully no one will ever see about a bunch of young people sharing a flat and getting up to crazy stuff.

I notice if I'm too fat or if I'm too ugly or there's skin hanging or whatever. When my clothes start not fitting, I get really self-conscious about what I eat.

All Americans owe a debt of gratitude to Dr. King for his bravery and commitment to civil rights and nonviolence that changed this nation - and world - for the better.

There's a market for mysteries for adults. That feeling of opening a book and delving inside and not coming out until you've closed the book.

In general, drug companies are reasonably good at developing new treatments, and there's also a lot of good in the industry.

When I was a kid, the avant-garde to me was boring because it was just the flip side of being really successful.

The world is your oyster. Yes, but in that oyster is the pearl; and to get to the pearl one has to first discard the shell and the flesh.

As long as you have goals to accomplish in this life, you will not truly be complete.

I've never gotten a release from any person. I'm not a businessman; I'm on the side of common sense. Releases ruin the atmosphere of photography.

Up there with my awards, I have a great big statue of Groucho Marx, just to put everything in perspective.

Despair exaggerates not only our misery but also our weakness.

Even slight elevations in blood sugar have been shown to increase the risk of Alzheimer's disease.

I love love songs, but sometimes it's okay to just be young and talk about something other than getting married or falling in love. There are so many fun things that you live that you can write about and people of all ages can connect to.

History or custom or social utility or some compelling sense of justice or sometimes perhaps a semi-intuitive apprehension of the pervading spirit of our law must come to the rescue of the anxious judge and tell him where to go.

The writer is someone who tears himself to pieces in order to liberate his neighbor.

I only understand friendship or scorched earth.

When a part of our nation gets knocked down, we come together to help pick it up again. No questions asked. That's the American way, and I would expect every single member of Congress to support that sentiment with their words, their actions, and their votes.

I strove with none; for none was worth my strife.

Contrary to all those times you've heard a writer confess at a reading that he writes fiction because he is a pathological liar, fiction writing is all about telling the truth.

Nature's beauty we all admire in every shape and form, but how much more we admire her when the weather's nice and warm.

Men don't know how to act like men sometimes. Take the trash out. Open up the door. Rub my feet. I mean, it's a two-way street!