Quotes by
Weegee

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.

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

Weegee often said that he was, "A natural-born photographer, with hypo in my blood."

What I did, anybody can do.

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.

To me, pictures are like blintzes – ya gotta get ‘em while they’re hot.

A good assignment to me is a good picture and a date. When I leave town I put a tablet in front of the girl’s house (as with George Washington): Weegee slept here.

People are so wonderful that a photographer has only to wait 4 that breathless moment 2 capture what he wants on film.

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.

I have no inhibitions, and neither has my camera.

Forget if it has been done before. Be yourself.

Being a free-lance photographer was not the easiest way to make a living. There had to be a good meaty story to get the editors to buy the pictures. A truck crash with the driver trapped inside, his face a crosscross of blood... a tenement house fire, with the screaming people being carried down the aerial ladder clutching their babies, dogs, cats, canaries, parrots, monkeys, and even snakes... a just-shot gangster, lying in the gutter, well dressed in his dark suit and pearl hat, hot off the griddle, with a priest, who seemed to appear from nowhere, giving him the last rites.

I would arrive at midnight, the cop at the information desk would be dozing... The police Teletype machine would be singing a song of crime and violence... Crime was my oyster, and I liked it.

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

In other words, you take everything in stride. The same camera that photographs a murder scene can photograph a beautiful society affair at a big hotel.

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.

News photography teaches you to think fast.

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

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

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. 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.

So, keep your eyes open. If you see anything, take it. Remember – you’re as good as your last picture. One day you’re hero, the next day you’re a bum...

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.).

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.

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

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

I can take a camera and paint with it. Nobody has exhausted the possibilities of the camera.

Every time I heard a sigh or a groan in the dark, I pushed the button.

I had to have a lens out of this world to do full justice to the strange sights & people which are Hollywood.

I was no longer glued to the Teletype machine at police headquarters. I had my wings. I no longer had to wait for crime to come to me; I could go after it. The police radio was my life line. My camera... my life and my love... was my Aladdin’s lamp.

Sure. I’d like to live regular. Go home to a goodlooking 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.

It’s like a modern Aladdin’s Lamp, you rub it and, in this case the camera, you push the button and it gives you the things you want.