Robert Capa Quotations

It's not always easy to stand aside and be unable to do anything except record the sufferings around one.

I would say that the war correspondent gets more drinks, more girls, better pay, and greater freedom than the soldier, but at this stage of the game, having the freedom to choose his spot and being allowed to be a coward and not be executed for it is his torture.

The pictures are there, and you just take them.

If your pictures aren't good enough, you aren't close enough.

It’s not enough to have talent. You also have to be Hungarian.

I hope to stay unemployed as a war photographer till the end of my life.

The truth is the best picture, the best propaganda.

This war is like an actress who is getting old. It is less and less photogenic and more and more dangerous.

In a war, you must hate somebody or love somebody; you must have a position or you cannot stand what goes on

For a war correspondent to miss an invasion is like refusing a date with Lana Turner.

The war correspondent has his stake - his life - in his own hands, and he can put it on this horse or that horse, or he can put it back in his pocket at the very last minute.

I am a gambler. I decided to go in with Company E in the first wave.

If your pictures aren't good enough, you're not close enough.

The desire of any war photographer is to be put out of business.

What's the point of getting killed if you've got the wrong exposure?

The [concentration camps] were swarming with photographers and every new picture of horror served only to diminish the total effect. Now, for a short day, everyone will see what happened to those poor devils in those camps; tomorrow, very few will care what happens to them in the future.

The war photographer's most fervent wish is for unemployment

Like people and let them know it.

The war is like an actress who is getting old. It's less and less photogenic and more and more dangerous. (1944)

You don't have to pose your camera. The pictures are there, and you just take them. The truth is the best picture, the best propaganda. (On the Spanish Civil War, 1937)

Q: Do you really distance yourself from your subject? I mean, what would you do if you were presented with a young girl burning to death? A: About 1/60 at f5.6.