“I would make myself head of the style police and we would fight fiercely against sloppiness.”

I don’t like sleeping with people I really love. I don’t want to sleep with them because sex cannot last, but affection can last forever.

A sense of humour and a little lack of respect: That’s what you need to make a legend survive.

I am not a fashion victim. Fashion is my victim.

When people talk about the good old days, I say to people, ‘It’s not the days that are old, it’s you that’s old.’ I hate the good old days. What is important is that today is good.

The reason American cars don’t sell anymore is that they have forgotten how to design the American Dream. What does it matter if you buy a car today or six months from now, because cars are not beautiful. That’s why the American auto industry is in trouble: no design, no desire.

Buy only because something excites you, not just for the simple act of shopping.

Vanity is the healthiest thing in life.

Logos and branding are so important. In a big part of the world, people cannot read French or English–but are great in remembering signs.

The best thing to do is dive with your imagination ~ you can never drown yourself.

If you want respect for your past, it means that you have a problem with your present and even more with your future.

Success nullifies. You then have to do it again, preferably differently.

Sometimes it’s easy to have ideas, but somebody has to find a way to do it. Often those responsible for finding a way don’t have the idea.

If someone gives me a to-do list, I say ‘thank you, this is nice.’ One needs things to throw in the wastebasket.

I hated the company of other children. I wanted to be a grownup person, to be taken seriously. I hated the idea of childhood; I thought it was a moment of endless stupidity.

For every book you buy, you should buy the time to read it.

What I love best in life is new starts.

I have for myself no conceivable complaint to make, and yet for American literature in general, and its standing in a country where industrialism and finance and science flourish and the only arts that are vital and respected are architecture and the film, I have a considerable complaint.

One man in a meeting, filled with unbelief, can make a place for the devil to have a seat.

It’s a shame that the only thing a man can do for eight hours a day is work. He can’t eat for eight hours; he can’t drink for eight hours; he can’t make love for eight hours. The only thing a man can do for eight hours is work.

Most troubles are unnecessary. We have Nature beaten; we can make her grow wheat; we can keep warm when she sends blizzards. So we raise the devil just for pleasure–wars, politics, race-hatreds, labor-disputes.

I am only a mouthpiece through which to tell the story of lynching and I have told it so often that I know it by heart. I do not have to embellish; it makes its own way.

If you want to make a permanent change, stop focusing on the size of your problems and start focusing on the size of you!

I feel like I’ve always wanted to live in one place and stay in one place, but I always end up choosing things that make me travel.

When you are a minority, it’s your job to bend, and when you love someone, you really want to make it work.