“I am a tremendous optimist for someone who has grown up amid the twilight of American competence.”

“So, I am in the twilight of my youth”

“I am an optimist. Anyone interested in the future has to be otherwise he would simply shoot himself.”

“But there's no reason to wait until I'm grown up when there's so much I can do now. So many Americans take so much for granted, so it's only right to help someone who has so little. That's why I'm sponsoring a four-year-old Dalit student, so Ayisath can have a good education all the way from the start.”

“If stocks are optimistic, then so am I.”

“I cannot be an optimist but I am a prisoner of hope.”

“To the question whether I am a pessimist or an optimist, I answer that my knowledge is pessimistic, but my willing and hoping are optimistic.”

“I really don’t think I was influenced by anyone. I think I will leave it up to someone else to determine who influenced me. I admired a tremendous number of photographers, but for some reason I arrived at a point of view of my own.”

“No one is competing with me and I am not trying to compete with anyone, I am looking for excellence and uniqueness in my work.”

“I think the Democratic Party could stand a liberal George Wallace—someone who's not afraid to stand up and offend people, someone who wouldn't pander but would say what the American people know in their gut is right.”