People buy very badly made furniture and fabric. Instead, buy a beautiful dining table, well-made upholstery. It's almost like dressing for success.

People with big personalities are best in the center of the table. They can help carry the conversation from that place.

Look at your world and your life, and look at what is personal to you. If you're living in an apartment, you need to stick with a narrative that's personal to you.

Make sure furniture decor has similar scale. It's all about scale, proportion, measuring, being conscious of the overall plan.

To have a 9-foot sofa in a small room can be kind of treacherous.

Think of how much furniture you need. What's the best way to have it be functional in a great way? If it's in groups, define it.

People get trapped in the way things should feel and less focused on the way things should function.

Be judicious with your budget and buy things that are going to last.

Avoid spending too much on one thing.

People buy things in isolation and don't think of how they work together.

To be influenced by a magazine and, say, a Swedish theme, unless it resonates with you, it seems kind of odd and influenced.

I write because I can remember and to keep those memories alive. I write for pleasure. I write because I must.

Courage is the first of human qualities, because it is the quality that guarantees all the others. - Winston Churchill

I was pretty sure if I tried to sing, all I would cause was an avalanche.

But what is after all the happiness of mere power? There is a greater happiness possible than to be lord of heaven and earth; that is the happiness of being truly loved.

More than half the questions I am asked are about the politics of the way I look

When you're wondering whether she's his daughter or his girlfriend, she's his girlfriend.

I'm a happy fellow. I feel very privileged, lucky, that I have had a wonderful life. And that I have been always allowed to do what I love.

Nature is reckless of the individual. When she has points to carry, she carries them.

Men seldom think deeply on subjects in which they have no choice of opinion: they are fearful of encountering obstacles to their faith--as in religion--and so are content with the surface.

A day spent praising the earth and lamenting man's pollutionist history makes you feel like a superior, sensitive soul.