Christian Louboutin

I never wanted to design clothes. I never wanted to work for the fashion industry. Shoes sort of belong to the fashion industry, which is why I'm part of the fashion industry. But that's never been my thought. My thought since I was a child was really to design those shoes for girls on stage.

I hate the whole concept of the clog! It's fake, it's ugly, and it's not even comfortable!

I'll do shoes for the lady who lunches, but it would be, like, a really nasty lunch, talking about men.

The core of my work is dedicated not to pleasing women, but to pleasing men.

You're abandoning a lot of ideas when you're too into comfort.

There is a heel that is too high to walk in, certainly. But who cares? You don't have to walk in high heels.

There are a million things I'd rather do before designing clothes: directing, landscaping.

I didn't even know 'Vogue' existed when I was growing up.

I never wanted to work in fashion. At age 12 or 13, I wanted to design for showgirls - for the theater! And I was crazy for the Hollywood of the 1950s: Dietrich, Elizabeth Taylor, Jennifer Jones. They were my idea of glamour - and Sylvie Vartan, the French singer.

I buy Dries van Noten shoes. I love his clothes, too.

I don't repeat that many styles if I can help, although some have become classics. I try not to repeat. I'd rather surprise people.

The highest heels I do are six-inch heels - but mostly only dancers can wear them, since they are used to being on point in ballet shoes. Their feet are arched.

When you sketch a shoe but don't have the intention to do a proper shoe, it remains a curvy sketch with no detail. The shoe completely morphs to the body.

If I could do shoes for anyone, it would be a special project for the Queen of England.

My relationship with shoes has always been linked to shoes, women, women in their shoes and performance.

If I'm in Italy, I'm going to have a cappuccino and two small brioches and then a mix of orange and grapefruit. I don't drink tea in Italy.

Fruit in the morning is such a big joy for me. I like to grab fruit from the tree, et cetera. I don't feel that way with vegetables. Fruit, you can eat it at any time, any moment, in any type of situation. I like everything about fruit; I like the color.

Breakfast is a peaceful moment for me, so I never have the radio on, no music, no noise around. The only noise that is permitted is people's voices. It's a way for me to wake up without too much of a high speed feeling.

In France you cannot not have lunch. If you stopped the French from having lunch, you will have a second revolution, I can tell you this. Not going to work - it is part of the French privilege.

When I'm drawing, I'm drawing with the light, being completely open and creative. I can't draw in the evening. I need light and I need warmth if it is a summer thing, and I need cold if it is a winter collection. The good thing is that I have houses to go to whenever I'm working. I draw according to the place.

I'm very detail oriented. Everything that takes a lot of dedication and creativity I do in the morning when there is light and I'm really concentrated.

During breakfast there is something I cannot resist, apart from my boyfriend - it's actually the phone. I have a phone breakfast. Always. I call friends, boyfriend, family. Checking who is where. 'Is everything fine?' This is breakfast.

My job is designing shoes. It's work that happens behind the scenes, as they say, and that suits me just fine because in general I am a shy person. But sometimes I have these extroverted outbursts.

I was born in Paris in the mid-1960s, and by the time I was 12 I had started going to the movies by myself. Most of the movies of that period never appealed to me. I didn't like the 'naturalism,' the sad or the 'down-to-earth' characters. What I wanted from film was fantasy, dreams, funny situations, extravagant decor - and beautiful women.

I remain faithful to bourbon sour. It's absolutely delicious. You'd have to ask a bartender what's in it, but I think if you know you might never have a drink. I also love a little rum, 7 years aged, brown, when it is chilly, before dinner.

I don't follow anything online. I am rather slow on that side.

I have this disease that if I feel good somewhere, I... buy a house.

I like Adele, Mika, Natacha Atlas and a beautiful old record, 'An Evening with Belafonte/Mouskouri,' starring Harry Belafonte and Nana Mouskouri. What they have in common is they all have incredible voices. I am very much into voices. I would say I'm a fan of voices, not of sound. I'm a fan of singers, not of bands.

Cinderella is not only an iconic character when it comes to beauty, grace and fairytale love, but also shoes.

I love deep cleavage on the foot. It reminds me of Berlin in 1930s, 'Cabaret.'

I guess being French, I love Hollywood. I love Hollywood movies. Joseph Mankiewicz's 'All About Eve.' 'Mildred Pierce.'

If I could do shoes for anyone, it would be a special project for the Queen of England. She and the Pope are the ultimate clients.

Being on a trapeze is like dreaming. I feel totally outside of myself when I'm flying. You know, designing shoes, my imagination is flying in my drawings.

In Paris, I really do like to try and do nothing... but that's impossible.

I haven't yet met a woman who told me, 'I wish I had shorter legs.'

I have always loved tartans - such an ornamented type of weaving, so vivid in colour, and such a masculine aspect. But actually, I think tartans can be feminine or masculine.

The highest heels I do are six-inch heels - but mostly only dancers can wear them, since they are used to being on point in ballet shoes.

At age 12 or 13, I wanted to design for showgirls - for the theater!

To me, the word 'decadent' is so difficult to use; it's a very sensitive word, in a way.

In designing shoes for myself; I'm not thinking of a specific person or catwalk. I'm just not thinking of clothes at all. I'm always thinking of a naked woman, actually.

I'm a designer, and I think if you work in fashion, you have to give people fantasy.

If the height of the heel is the same as the length of your foot, it starts to look wrong. And if the heel is positioned badly on the sole, you get into ballerina territory, where the body is pushed into a very strange posture. You can exaggerate the arch only so much.

For women raised in the '70s, high heels can still carry a stigma; they're associated with being stupid, with just wanting to please a man. Other women find them empowering.

A good host is someone who really takes care of everyone, from the food to their daily programme. I can't.

If there is something I like, I buy it and then find somewhere for it. I buy first then I think.

A house is very much like a portrait. I cannot disconnect houses from people. The thought of arrangement, the curves and straight lines. It gives an indication of the character at the heart of it.

I think every market has lot of things in common, and at the same time, every market has lot of different things.

When you are too specific on a target, it can drain you. Ask me where I will be when I am 60, and I will have no answer to give.

If you are not bored by life, and your primary motto is enthusiasm and if you like your friends, family around you, it all translates into your designs. That's what keeps the creativity alive.

Even today, I am still very child-like while designing. It's a bit like Christmas - each of your designs you create is like unravelling your presents.