“Just because you’re from a city ten miles outside of St. Paul. It doesn’t mean you don’t read magazines, or the incredible Internet, and what’s going on in the world. I never, ever take a client, or women, for granted.”

I do speak Mandarin, and I also relate to the hunger that China has for culture and architecture and style.

I see myself as a true modernist. Even when I do a traditional gown, I give it a modern twist. I go to the past for research. I need to know what came before so I can break the rules.

I see myself as a true modernist. Even when I do a traditional gown, I give it a modern twist. I go to the past for research. I need to know what came before so I can break the rules.

I see myself as a true modernist. Even when I do a traditional gown, I give it a modern twist. I go to the past for research. I need to know what came before so I can break the rules.

Don’t be afraid to take time to learn. It’s good to work for other people. I worked for others for 20 years. They paid me to learn.

Design is about point of view, and there should be some sort of woman or lifestyle or attitude in one’s head as a designer.

I make things of my own that aren’t that glam, but I’m not known for that, which has always been a bit of a frustration for me.

My bedroom is my sanctuary. It’s like a refuge, and it’s where I do a fair amount of designing – at least conceptually, if not literally.

People get very trapped where they are. When they hear “fashion” they get intimidated, particularly at the upper end because it’s so elitist. If you can bring your own concept or your viewpoint and translate it not down but out, then you’re really successful in the truest sense.

Fashion offers no greater challenge than finding what works for night without looking like you are wearing a costume.

My closet is organized by tops, pants, and outerwear, but not a lot of dresses. Gowns are in another room because I don’t often dress formally, even though I design gowns. Like most designers, I have a uniform, and mine is a legging.

I was an art history major, but never specifically contemporary. I would say where I really stopped were the abstract expressionists in the New York school.

The intricate engraving, fine lines, beading and milgrain accents echo an era defined by elaborate embellishments.

Bridal is always about who you are as a person and as a woman and as a lover and as a mate. People always ask me how a woman can pick just one dress. And the funny thing is they always know.

I wanted to define the vocabulary of a wedding both visually and intellectually. The book is about more than weddings or wedding dresses. It’s a metaphor for women’s lives, their creativity.

Service is a prerequisite for anything relating to luxury. That makes it (shopping) sensual and pleasurable.

Books are delightful when prosperity happily smiles; when adversity threatens, they are inseparable comforters.

My name is L and I’m from a part of town where clowns, Get beat down and all you hear is gunshot sounds ‘Cause at nighttime niggas try to tax, they’re sneakier than alley cats, that’s why I carry gats

Sooner or later you will find them out; you will discover that they drink, or steal books, or speak sharply to cats. Never trust a man or a woman who is not passionately devoted to geraniums.

Just put it to your personality, put it to yourself, and you develop your workout. Cause those books and things, those are other people’s gimmicks and hypes.

A harsh reality of newspaper editing is that the deadlines don’t allow for the polish that you expect in books or even magazines

Books had instant replay long before televised sports.

I loved the photographs of people wearing elaborate makeup and costumes – they really pulled at me inside. I was in that library every week for years, until I was about 13. I had a rich interior life, because I didn’t have much of a social life.

People are usually surprised to hear this, but I don’t really read children’s books.