“I’m not interested in what other people are doing. That’s their business.”

Anybody who says they don’t want to be seen on a show which has millions of people watching it at one time when they’re in the business of selling records is a bit silly.

There’s nothing better than achieving your goals, whatever they might be.

I think I’d be a million times more successful and more iconic if I was a singer in the 40s. I’d be allowed a level of mystery and I think I’d suit that decade.

I enjoy being a girl.

I mean, my music career and my acting career – if I want to do them to the extent that I eventually do want to get to, it’s going to be a bit of a balancing act. But I’m hoping they’ll just go hand in hand.

My mum’s always on at me to have children and blames ‘that stupid stage thing you do’ for me not already having a family.

My desire to experiment comes from my attention-deficit approach to cosmetics. I just get really bored, really easily.

If I get in a relationship, it’s always for the long-term; if not, I don’t see the point.

I get to know my regular fans, and they inspire me.

I’m very affected by what I watch and read.

We live in a society where everything’s packaged.

I don’t understand why the accent you speak in has to indicate what level of intellect you have.

Adele’s like a beacon of honesty. Doesn’t compromise, goes to America and she’s still the same sweary cockney.

I’m proud of being British, but I think our aristocracy is overrated.

I don’t feel I fit in with morning television because I’m like a vampire and I like to stay up late.

I have a lot of admiration for people who’ve been in relationships a long time, married for years.

I think in business, you have to learn to be patient. Maybe I’m not very patient myself. But I think that I’ve learned the most is be able to wait for something and get it when it’s the right time.

What we do in our group is the opposite of the bad effects of globalization. We produce in Italy and in France and we sell to China, when usually it’s the opposite.

Become an expert in one fundamental area of your market or business, no one starts out as a generalist.

It is not enough to have a talented designer; the management must be inspired too. The creative process is very disorganised; the production process has to be very rational.

When I was working in my first job engineering construction, what I liked the most was working with architects and making buildings that had this creative side coming from the architect and that were making them a big success.

If you control your distribution, you control your image.

In the luxury business, you have to build on heritage.

Secure against the designs of men, secure against the malignity of the Gods, they have accomplished a thing of infinite difficulty; that to them nothing remains even to be wished.