Weegee Quotations

People are so wonderful that a photographer has only to wait for that breathless moment to capture what he wants on film.

This is unexposed film of Greenwich Village because nothing ever happens there.

Sure. I’d like to live regular. Go home to a good looking wife, a hot dinner, and a husky kid. But I guess I got film in my blood. I love this racket. It’s exciting. It’s dangerous. It’s funny. It’s tough. It’s heartbreaking.

News photography teaches you to think fast.

A natural-born photographer, with hypo in my blood.

I have no chips on my shoulder. I like to be constructive. As I have said, I have inspired many persons to take up photography. As a matter of fact, I inspire myself. (When I take a good picture I give myself a bonus.).

I am a perfectionist. When I take a picture...it's gotta be good.

It's been a strange [summer].... I was sent by a magazine to photograph famous photographers.... Of course, I included myself.

Anyone who looks for life can find it... and they don't need to photograph ashcans. The average camera fan reminds me of Pollyanna, with a lollypop in one hand and a camera in the other. You can't be a Nice Nelly and take news pictures.

I had so many unsold murder pictures lying around my room...I felt as if I were renting out a wing of the City Morgue.

The same camera that photographs a murder scene can photograph a beautiful society affair at a big hotel.

Hollywood is Newark, New Jersey with palm trees.

If I had a picture of two handcuffed criminals being booked, I would cut the picture in half and get five bucks for each.

There are photographic fanatics, just as there are religious fanatics. They buy a so-called candid camera there is no such thing: it’s the photographer who has to be candid, not the camera.

What I did, anybody can do.

To me, pictures are like blintzes - ya gotta get 'em while they're hot.

To me a photograph is a page from life, and that being the case, it must be real.

My name is Weegee. I’m the world’s greatest photographer…

Many photographers live in a dream world of beautiful backgrounds. It wouldn’t hurt them to get a taste of reality to wake them up.

I’m no part time dilettante photographer, unlike the bartenders, shoe salesmen, floorwalkers plumbers, barbers, grocery clerks and chiropractors whose great hobby is their camera. All their friends rave about what wonderful pictures they take. If they’re so good, why don’t they take pictures full—time, for a living, and make floor walking, chiropractics, etc., their hobby? But everyone wants to play it safe. They’re afraid to give up their pay checks and their security they might miss a meal.

When you find yourself beginning to feel a bond between yourself and the people you photograph, when you laugh and cry with their laughter and tears, you will know you are on the right track.