“I think to make your home as comfortable as possible is so important.”

I’m natural, but I wear makeup seven days a week.

When you ask women what’s the one thing they wish they had more of, they always say time.

As a girl, my favorite toy was my dollhouse; if I could still play with it now, I would! I used to love a well-arranged room: the furniture, the fabric, the lighting.

People always ask what I would have done if I weren’t doing what I’m doing. And I say I’d [still] be in fashion or in beauty. It’s such a dream come true now because I have the ability to go into home [goods] and accessories as well.

I love Pilates, I really do, and I do it three times a week because it works well for me.

I figure if I take my children’s work seriously, maybe they will too. And it reinforces the idea that art is not something alien and esoteric. Anyone can make art.

And balancing motherhood and career makes you both a better mother and a better businesswoman.

I’ve always loved the beauty world. Ever since I was a child, I looked at magazines and wore fragrances and tried out samples and sets. I worked at Clinique in the creative department for a summer during high school. And when I graduated from university,

I discovered I was passionate about the creative process, the product development, creating a concept around a fragrance or lipstick.

Beauty is my heritage and my core. But my passion is design for the spaces where we live and work.

You always have to stay true to yourself.

I love market research because you really have an idea of what your consumers are looking for.

I think talented people are priceless. And I think people that are knowledgeable and experienced – and I think there’s a balance of new talent and experience, which makes, I think, Estee Lauder really special.

There’s something really interesting about that as a trend, that whole idea of lifestyle and being happy in your surroundings.

My mom has always been kind of my backbone. She keeps me strong. She is a mother, a friend. She is really everything to me.

It can be a walk on the beach, it could be a kiss from your child,or it could be a beautiful picture frame, a special fragrance. I think luxury doesn’t necessarily have to mean expensive.

The rooms I tend to be in are pretty democratic and the best idea wins.

I had no idea what it would be like to do an album and that process was grueling and tedious but it was very rewarding.

Sometimes when I’m directing, the stage manager will have a good idea and that’s okay with me.

I absolutely loathe the idea of doing a fragrance simply as a moneymaker. Personal brand to make money? Vomit.

English can be tricky because there are so many false cognates, but sometimes, as long the idea conveyed is not wrong, these false cognates can themselves offer synonyms or lead to a better alternative word or phrase in translation.

I’ve never really felt good at the parties, but I have enough friends now that I feel social, I used to feel very antisocial, but I think the theater helps.

The ideas always have to be in service of the story. And that’s what Scott and the writers did – they weren’t trying to beat you over the head with an idea; they had a story they wanted to tell, and they had ideas

We’re always looking for the backbone, the central idea, and once you have that you know everything can circle around it.