The photographer Robert Capa, known for some of the most iconic war photos of the 20th century, explains how unmissable a date with an invasion is for a war correspondent. I liked the analogy. Capa was killed in action when he stepped on a mine at the age of 40.

‘For a war correspondent to miss an invasion,’ he said, ‘is like refusing a date with Lana Turner after completing a five-year stretch at Sing Sing.’

Source: Robert Capa, quoted in Introduction to John Steinbeck, A Russian Journal, with photographs by Robert Capa (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1999 (1948)), p. xvii

Photo credit: Lana Turner, 1940s, Wikimedia Commons