"My own eyes are no more than scouts on a preliminary search, for the camera's eye may entirely change my idea."
"Anything that excites me for any reason, I will photograph; not searching for unusual subject matter, but making the commonplace unusual."
"Now, to consult the rules of composition before making a picture is a little like consulting the law of gravity before going for a walk."
"Clouds, torsos, shells, peppers, trees, rocks, smoke stacks, are but interdependent, interrelated parts of a whole, which is life."
"Very often people looking at my pictures say, 'You must have had to wait a long time to get that cloud just right (or that shadow, or the light).' As a matter of fact, I almost never wait, that is, unless I can see that the thing will be right in a few minutes. But if I must wait an hour for the shadow to move, or the light to change, or the cow to graze in the other direction, then I put up my camera and go on, knowing that I am likely to find three subjects just as good in the same hour."
"The prejudice many photographers have against color photography comes from not thinking of color as form. You can say things with color that can't be said in black and white. Those who say that color will eventually replace black and white are talking nonsense. The two do not compete with each other. They are different means to different ends."
"Martin Luther, when he walked in the woods, used to raise his hat to the birds and say, ‘Good morning, theologians—you wake and sing, but I, old fool, know less than you and worry over everything, instead of simply trusting in the heavenly Father’s care."
