“Fashion is like a party. Getting dressed is preparing to play a role.”

I want to thank all the women who have worn my clothes, the famous and the unknown, who have been so faithful to me and given me so much joy.

Chanel freed women, and I empowered them.

I love women. I love all the bright and attractive people and things of this world, the flame and also the moth, the dancer and the dance.

Decadence attracts me. It suggests a new world, and, for me, society’s struggle between life and death is absolutely beautiful.

I was born with a nervous breakdown.

Finding your own style is not easy, but once found it brings complete happiness. It gives you self-confidence, always.

Fashions come and go, but style is forever.

Fashion is defined by what later becomes out of fashion.

Without elegance of the heart, there is no elegance.

Haute couture consists of secrets whispered from generation to generation,

I’d really like to be in closer contact with life. I’m a little too distant, I guess. I like to place myself outside.

I find men’s clothing fascinating because sometime between, say, 1930 and 1936 a handful of basic shapes were created and still prevail as a sort of scale of expression, with which every man can project his own personality and his own dignity.

I couldn’t love a woman who inspired me to be totally disinterested. If I fell in love with a woman for an artistic reason, or from the point of view of my work, I think it would rob her of something.

Elegance and beauty have been banished.

I love bows, … And I feel some couture pots coming on.

I created for my era and I tried to foresee what tomorrow would be.

Which is why I think any loving, committed couple — gay or straight — should be able to get married.

You get over the hump and you’re on a roll.

I savour the adulation and love I have been getting from my fans and the blessings of elders in my family.

The best advice anybody could have given me was to keep getting up over and over again.

By getting into distribution and production, I am actually widening my base.

Giving up is conceding that things will never get better, and that is just not true.

Miss the moment and you never get a chance again.

I don’t get any parts I don’t get offered. There are lots of great things out there I would like to do that I don’t get offered.