I like to preserve simplicity rahter than over-polishing. Fashions are changeable. Taste is in realizing the essence of a place.

In restoring a house one must first realize its period, feel its personality and try to bring out its good points.

If every piece is perfect the room becomes a museum and lifeless.

A gentle mixture of furniture expresses life and continuity but it must be a judicious mixture that flows and mixes well. It is a bit like mixing a salade. (I am better at room than salads).

I never think that sticking slavishly to one period is successful, a touch of nostalgia adds charm. One needs light and shade because if every piece is perfect the room becomes a museum and lifeless.

Crossing too many t's and dotting too many i's makes a room look overdone and tiresome. One should create something that fires the imagination without overemphasis.

How lucky I've been to live in such beautiful places and able to make them as I dreamed. I've been lucky. I've adored my houses more than my friends (or husbands).

Scale is of prime importance and I think that oversized scale is better than undersized scale.

In choosing a colour one must realize that it changes in different aspects.

I've lived too long and I've lived too well.

Old art offers just as good a criticism of new art as new art offers of old.

They had laughed. They had leaned on each other and laughed until the tears had come, while everything else--the cold, and where he'd go in it--was outside, for a while anyway.

Eliminate blame, guilt, and worry from your diet and watch your health improve.

I never wanted to be a career politician. I always am interested just to take on challenges that everyone says are impossible to do and to take it on.

I've had six or eight hookers in my life. I never woke up the next day thinking man I'm glad I got a hooker last night.

Habit is a form of exercise.

You can't be wrong in journalism. Take a wrong turn in journalism, and you are writing fiction. You can take a wrong turn in poetry, and something wonderful can happen.

It was nice - in the dark and the quiet... and her eyes looking back, like there was something in me worth seeing.

I am like my characters - sometimes even the female ones.

I've found that film-making's not just a job, it becomes part of your whole life.