My parents had a factory, so I was linked to the textile and fashion industry.

I don't listen to music when designing. We create in silence. I go through a torturous process because everything has to be precise and right.

I wanted to be involved with fashion, though I didn't know what being a designer meant.

My resolution is to make positivity, thankfulness and happiness my new mantra.

I hope the average woman feels she needs practicality but with a little bit of fantasy. Otherwise it's just not fashion.

Each season I strive to design a forward-thinking and effortless collection with a very clean minimalist aesthetic.

When a sketch comes into this three-dimensional form and everybody contributes, it's really fantastic.

I came to New York in 1986. My father didn't think it was a good idea. I didn't know how I found it, but I went to Hunter College. I had no money and I couldn't speak English.

Brazil is not what you see but what you feel. Once you spend time here - a week, two weeks - you get in the vibe. It's really intoxicating.

I don't love reading so much, but I love book shopping. It's just because I don't have much time.

Being sexy is not about what's on show, it's all about suggestion, or insinuation. I'm interested in the way a garment hangs on a woman's body and the way it moves when she moves.

We are the wreck of what we have been, and the place of our own future demise.

I'm the policy-maker; I'm the lawmaker.

Such, indeed, is the policy of civil war: severely to remember injuries, and to forget the most important services. Revenge is profitable, gratitude is expensive.

When you know what an actor has, you can reach in and arouse it. If you don't know what he has, you don't know what the hell is going on.

In reality, for me every role is completely different.

I grew up going to the store, seeing the products [of L'Oréal ], seeing the commercials and the ambassadors. I never in a million years thought I'd be associated with them.

Prayer is so incredibly powerful. It keeps you in perfect peace.

I lived my twenties in a very public manner and if anyone's twenties are documented it's not always going to be pretty.

Directing is like guitar playing. That's a unique mind-set and talent, unto itself. I like the idea of putting everything together to make a great movie.

One of the most difficult things in writing a novel or anything at all is to choose the point of view from which it's going to be told.