I suppose because my work was so popular people didn't really look at it.
— David Bailey
Photography is more about money now but then so are most things.
I did painting before I did photography.
I am mad about my wife.
I don't feel very optimistic in London.
Being handsome wasn't much of a burden. It worked for me.
I was a terrible father. The most I ever did for my children was to teach them chess. At least they got that.
I was ten when I got my first serious beating. It was rough.
I had a terrible time with feminists in the Seventies. They hated me, those women. I think they hated everything.
London changes because of money. It's real estate. If they can build some offices or expensive apartments they will, it's money that changes everything in a city.
Fortunately I didn't get educated because if I'd got educated I'd be an educated fool now.
I was dyslexic, so I was put in the silly class at school.
I just thought it was magic that you could stick a bit of paper in some coffee-type liquid and a picture comes out.
Everyone gets old - there's nothing you can do about it.
The reason I did fashion was it was the only way to get paid to do anything creative. You couldn't support yourself as an 'artist' - I hate that word. The only way you could be 'arty' was as a fashion photographer, because it still had a certain amount of integrity involved.
I didn't try and do fashion pictures. I tried to do portraits of girls wearing dresses.
You adapt to who you're photographing.
If I have any sexist feelings they are aimed at men: I hate manly men.
The Sixties was a time of breaking down class barriers, although I think class still exists today in some areas.
Instead of putting someone in prison for being a hooligan, give him a choice. He may have beaten someone up and he's got eight years, but tell him you can do eight years inside or spend five years in the Army. Put him in the Parachute Regiment, they'd soon sort him out.
I was surrounded by strong women so it had never even occurred to me that women were anything other than equal to men.
I'm not political and I don't judge.
Being trendy is dangerous. I've never been trendy, which is why I've never really fallen out of favour.
In France they don't think I'm difficult.
To get rich, you have to be making money while you're asleep.
My friends are all megalomaniacs - from Damien Hirst to Jack Nicholson - all of them.
In New York, everyone's desperate for success, desperate for money and desperate to be accepted, but in London they're more laid back about things like that.
Being dyslexic, I was told that I was an idiot all the time.
I sort of fall in love with them when I'm photographing them - men and women.
I left school on my 15th birthday.
I've been used by women all my life, fortunately.
My exploits are nothing now to the average person.
I always go for simplicity.
I could develop a picture by the time I was 12.
I know everything should be photographed. It helps me make sense of my existence.
Sometimes I still can't believe my luck.
All my ex-girlfriends or wives are all kind of great friends and I've never understood somebody who can live with somebody for five or six years and then not like them.
I've had some weird experiences.
I like change. There's something Buddhist about it - continuous change is wonderful.
I hate men who are in touch with their feminine side.
Rather than knowing more, I think I've got more open-minded.
I never tried to revolutionise photography; I just do what I do and keep my fingers crossed that people will like it.
The only thing they can't teach you at art school is art.
If you're curious, London's an amazing place.
I guess I'm the last of the Cockneys.
My first influence obviously was Picasso.
All I could do at school was paint and draw and that was the only time I ever passed any exam. It was the only thing I ever got right at school.
I've never been anti-women.
You can't really copy what I do because I don't do anything.
I've always tried to do pictures that don't date.
