"I can design a collection in a day and I always do, cause I've always got a load of Italians on my back, moaning that it's late."

"There is something sinister, something quite biographical about what I do - but that part is for me. It's my personal business. I think there is a lot of romance, melancholy. There's a sadness to it, but there's romance in sadness. I suppose I am a very melancholy person."

"I come from a different era and I design clothes for our era. I think of people I want to dress when I design."

"Rap music's been around for too long now to be inspirational. The words are, but the music isn't."

"Bonfire of the Vanities: The lesson of that book is, never start believing your own press."

"I wrote one book, signed with a good agent, and sat back and waited for the phone to ring. I was sure that the great news would come at any moment. Four books later, I finally got that call."

"There is that stereotype of a nerd with the high pants and pocket protector and that kind of thing. That can sustain comedy for maybe a movie - hence the 'Revenge of the Nerds' franchise - but not for hopefully years on the air. It's a sight gag, not a story."

"Pound's translation of Chinese poetry was maybe the most important thing I read. Eliot a little bit later."