You have no idea how humiliating it was as a boy to suddenly have all your clothes your toys snatched by the bailiff. I mean we were a middle-class family it's not as if it was happening up and down the street. It made me ashamed I felt dirty.

I bought a lot of rubbish things that kids buy: skateboards and clothes and typical teenage stuff. And as soon as I could I wasted a lot of money on cars - BMW's mostly - for myself and my family.

I always put clothes and family photos under the mattress in case the house burns down.

The first duty of government is to see that people have food fuel and clothes. The second that they have means of moral and intellectual education.

When I get a little money I buy books and if any is left I buy food and clothes.

People ask how can a Jewish kid from the Bronx do preppy clothes? Does it have to do with class and money? It has to do with dreams.

I try not to be but I'm super-neurotic about diet. I'm neurotic about trying not to be neurotic! I'm like every other girl. I have to try really hard my whole life to try to be fit. And I'm super-vain. And I want to wear cute clothes.

Diets like clothes should be tailored to you.

I brought a lot of my own pieces of clothes to the design room when I first met with the design team just so they could see what my style was like.

I do what I love to do at the moment. If I wake up tomorrow and decide I want to dance that's what I'd do. Or design clothes. I think I'd throw myself into whatever I'm doing now. It's not about abandoning what I was doing before or giving up. It's about knowing that if I die tomorrow I lived the way I wanted to.

I don't set goals. Like that's what I want to be doing however many years from now. I do what I love to do at the moment. If I wake up tomorrow and decide I want to dance that's what I'd do. Or design clothes.

I design some of my own clothes now.

Initially it was the unpractical in fashion that brought me to design my own line. I felt that it was much more attractive to cut clothes with respect for the living three-dimensional body rather than to cover the body with decorative ideas.

I used to design for my body which was flat-chested with big hips. That's why my clothes were tight on top with full skirts.

After working with clothes for so long it seemed right to design them.

I'm not a size 0 and I'm nowhere close to it. But I don't want anyone to know what I am so I like to design clothes so you don't know what's going on under there.

I am a fashion designer. I'm not an environmentalist. When I get up in the morning number one I'm a mother and a wife and number two I design clothes. So the main thing I need to do is create hopefully exquisitely beautiful desirable objects for my customer.