“All great art contains at its center contemplation, a dynamic contemplation.”

“As objects of contemplation, images of the atrocious can answer to several different needs. To steel oneself against weakness. To make oneself more numb. To acknowledge the existence of the incorrigible. ”

“Never worry about being obsessive. I like obsessive people. Obsessive people make great art”

“Art is seduction, not rape. ”

“Interpretation is the revenge of the intellectual upon art. ”

“Part of the puzzle, surely, lies in the disconnect between official rhetoric and lived realities. Americans are constantly extolling “traditions”; litanies to family values are at the center of every politician’s discourse. And yet the culture of America is extremely corrosive of family life, indeed of all traditions except those redefined as “identities” that fit in the larger patterns of distinctiveness, cooperation, and openness to innovation.”

“Time eventually positions most photographs, even the most amateurish, at the level of art.”