“I don't like to photograph children as children. I like to see them as...” — Mary Ellen Mark Quote

I don't like to photograph children as children. I like to see them as adults, as who they really are. I'm always looking for the side of who they might become.

I was fascinated by my own prom pictures.

Photograph the world as it is. Nothing's more interesting than reality.

I really knew when I started photographing I wanted it to be a way of knowing different cultures, not just in other countries but in this country, too, and I knew I wanted to be a voyeur.

I'm not much for cats. I'm terrified of mice. I've worked a lot with elephants, and they are extremely intelligent and sensitive, and thankfully, they seem to like me. You never want to get on the bad side of an elephant. And never trust a chimp.

I was a little ham and was a very open kid, probably because I was around adults all the time. That also forced me to grow up fast, and I learned at an early age about how people lie and deceive each other.

I don't think it's a coincidence that comic books appeal so strongly to children. Not that it negates any of their power for adults, but there is something about comics that makes them a perfect storytelling system for children.

I believe that maturity is not an outgrowing, but a growing up: that an adult is not a dead child, but a child who survived.

As adults, we do know more, but we don't know enough. People can be very unthinkingly callous.