Diane von Furstenberg

We need to encourage designers and agencies to be responsible. We need to make sure everyone is sensitive to the issues. But to calculate the girls' body mass - I personally think it is demeaning.

Fashion Week is so important for designers.

I've been working seriously in giving fashion a place that it deserves.

I was lucky because I got so successful so early, and when you get successful early, then you can afford to be a little bit humble.

I'm very good at breaking up with people. Very good. It requires a lot of skill, but what you do is you tell them the truth of why you are breaking up with them, and after that, you somehow compensate with other things. If you have loved someone, I think that somehow they should always be a part of your life. I really do.

I never knew what I wanted to do, but I knew the kind of woman I wanted to be.

When you come to a hotel room, you want it to be grand, functional and beautiful. But you don't want things that are not useful. Sometimes you go to hotels and there are all these frames and pictures of people you don't know, and you end up hiding everything in the drawer, and then housekeeping come and put it out again.

The way I design generally is very much travel-oriented because that is my life. That's why I make clothes that are so light and so easy to pack and a little bit seasonless.

I am a traveler. I am a nomad. I rarely sleep in the same bed more than three or four nights. And I know hotel life better than anyone.

I obviously don't feel under pressure to look young, because I have had no Botox or surgery. I don't judge people who choose to have it, but I don't want to erase who I am.

I think all races are represented in America much more than in many other places, but it's also nice to remind people about that ethnic mix. I would like to see more black models and women from different ethnic backgrounds, but I also think that when you are casting, you just choose the most beautiful girl you can find.

I adore dark chocolate.

The most important thing is to be healthy, to drink a lot of water, to fight gravity as much as possible. I am one of the few people who decided I wasn't going to do any invasion with my face.

I am almost a vegetarian, and I meditate, do yoga and love to hike.

My biggest vice is playing solitaire on my iPad. It's bad. I mean, it's ridiculous.

I communicate mostly via e-mail and receive hundreds of e-mails a day.

My favorite days are the ones where I deal only with my own team, design, marketing, working on the next accessories collection.

When I was a little girl, if I didn't eat my soup, my mother would say, 'You have to think of all the Chinese children who have nothing to eat.' But now, for my children, Chinese people make everything, and for my grandchildren, they buy everything.

I always was fascinated with China, because I was born in Europe, and for us, China had this fascination and mystery. The first time I came here was in 1989. They were on bicycles, and the speed of the growth has been incredible.

The Chinese consumer is everybody. It's very simple.

All women are the same, really: They are strong, but they are afraid of their own strength.

What I think I sell with my clothes is confidence, so hopefully all my dresses, my accessories, are friends to the women. When you open the closet, and your eyes are swollen, and you don't like the way you look, you go to your friends.

Simplicity and sexiness, that's what people want. At a price that's not outrageous.

My best friend is me, and I take good care of me.

Marriage was never a destination with me.

I'm not tired of who I am. That would be sad!

I had good legs, and I loved showing them off.

My mother never, ever told me about evilness. She only saw the beautiful things... she wanted to protect me from it.

The older I get, the more impressed I am with women. I have yet to meet a woman who is not strong. They don't exist.

I didn't really know what I wanted to do, but I knew the woman I wanted to become.

The real story is that I am very free, that I've managed to be who I wanted to be without compromising.

I don't like to talk about my dreams. I like to make them happen. I prefer to talk about them when they're done.

Everyone knows I married a prince, and then I married a billionaire.

When I was young, I lived like an old woman, and when I got old, I had to live like a young person.

Women are strong. We can do it all. But not always at the same time.

Usually, the fairy tale ends with the girl marrying the prince. But mine started as soon as the marriage was over.

I loved the seventies.

You need, in your closet, clothes that will - that you can use in many different ways. Clothes that make you fell comfortable, clothes that make you feel 'you.'

There are emerging countries. I mean, there are countries, you know, China, India, and Brazil, and all of these countries that are emerging. They are building homes. They are building - so there is a new lifestyle.

I've always been inspired by women, and my mission was to inspire women. I always wanted to become a certain kind of woman, and I became that woman through fashion. It was a dialogue. I would see that the wrap dress made those women confident, and made them act with confidence.

As the president of the Council of Fashion Designers of America, I represent the designers. And while we can by no means take the blame for eating disorders, we can play our part in addressing this important issue.

I have always been attracted to clothes designed by women. Coco Chanel, Vionnet, Norma Kamali, Donna Karan. They have a little more - how do I put it? - understanding.

I was a very young girl and I got into fashion very much by accident, wanting to be independent. What was wonderful was that while I was learning and discovering - learning about the work, discovering myself as a woman - I was allowing other women to feel the same way.

Work and children I could have. But the husband was just too much.

Confidence. If you have it, you can make anything look good.

Fashion is mysterious, as a rule. Why are blue jeans a classic? You just hit on something that happens to be timeless and right.

The best-dressed man is an Italian who is trying to look English, or an Englishman who is trying to look Italian.

I used the aspects of being a woman to my advantage, but I worked for myself, not a big corporation, so I was lucky to have the freedom to behave however I liked.

I believe that all women should have children. I think women are made to have children and to be mothers. I also think women have to have an identity outside the home.

My mother said that we're so lucky to be women. It's not that men are weak. Men are men. We're two completely different animals.