I was a make believe ethnographer: treating New Yorkers like an explorer would treat Zulus - searching for the rawest snapshot, the zero degree of ph…

- William Klein

Be yourself. I much prefer seeing something, even it is clumsy, that doesn't look like somebody else's work.

- William Klein

Anybody who pretends to be objective isn't realistic.

- William Klein

Sometimes, I'd take shots without aiming, just to see what happened. I'd rush into crowds - bang! bang! ... It must be close to what a fighter feels …

- William Klein

I have always loved the amateur side of photography, automatic photographs, accidental photographs with uncentered compositions, heads cut off, whate…

- William Klein

I don't roam around with a camera and never did. I took pictures in spurts, for my books, for some assignments or on special occasions. Like people w…

- William Klein

What would please me most is to make photographs as incomprehensible as life.

- William Klein

I thought New York had it coming, that it needed a kick in the balls. When I returned to New York, I wanted to get even. Now I had a weapon, photogra…

- William Klein

I feel like I'm doing something that's worthwhile. I feel like I'm showing something other people haven't shown. I don't get to talk to the people wh…

- William Klein