Elsa Peretti

I hated modeling. I was so scared. But as soon as I started doing jewelry, I did better as a model.

I would like to get married, but it must be a man who is part of my work, or me part of his.

A big diamond necklace is nouveau riche, really. People who have wealth a long time don't wear such things.

What I want is not to become a status symbol, but to give beauty at a price.

I design for the working girl.

I like to do things that are classic.

A lot of designers still have nostalgia for the past. As for the furniture in the future, I hope they use less of real wood. Conservation in wood is necessary.

People surround themselves in their houses with things they don't really need, that they have to dust all the time.

Good design for the home should be universal. A house should be like old shoes, comfortable, like a good friend... The Japanese aesthetic is important to me. Very organic. They have a sense of the weight of the thing: very balanced.

I keep my hair gray, so I like silver and platinum. For women who dye their hair, they can wear whatever they want.

For me, to put together my museum and all my remembrances was a big effort mentally, physically and monetarily.

I don't have the feeling that I need to add a lot to my collection, because I have an incredibly wide range of things. This is a part of the secret of my things, that they are still valid. When I feel a need, I do something more.

Bird cages are nothing of incredible value, but I like them.

I can't copy nature.

I like Yorkshire Tea - very strong and English.

I always write in pencil, so I can erase.

I hate that impeccable, perfectly perfect look, all matched and prearranged.

I can hold a cup of sake on a full moon in Japan, and the reflection of the moon in that little cup can make me feel so enthusiastic about beauty. That one good, magical moment can give me enough to create other things like the teardrop earring or necklace.

I like to push myself to achieve a certain quality, eliminate the excess detail. I always want a high degree of purity.

I am jewelry and objects together. This is the Elsa Peretti name to me. It is a very good balance for me to try and create with the person in mind or with the space in mind - to imagine a bowl of fruit or something for water. It is a little bit yin and yang.

You think about the beauty and what you want to transmit. If I think about designing, I can't design.

I was a baby when I began, but I knew exactly what I wanted to wear myself. I became a jewelry designer because I knew how to do something with a pencil and sketch my ideas.

Most of the time, I'm in the country, and the jewelry I wear I can wear in the country.

The production must be faithful to the line. If the production fails, my work fails.

I am a bull. I am Taurus. My will is awful. If I like something, there is nothing else. I was a pain in the neck. I still am a pain in the neck.