My bedroom is my sanctuary. It's like a refuge, and it's where I do a fair amount of designing - at least conceptually, if not literally.

Success isn't about the end result; it's about what you learn along the way.

A woman is never sexier than when she is comfortable in her clothes.

When I design a wedding dress with a bustle, it has to be one the bride can dance in. I love the idea that something is practical and still looks great.

I was stigmatized by being a bridal designer for a long time. I am amazed I have been able to move beyond it. I had really all but given up trying, but I did it because it was my lifelong dream.

Don't be afraid to take time to learn. It's good to work for other people. I worked for others for 20 years. They paid me to learn.

I want people to see the dress, but focus on the woman.

Fashion offers no greater challenge than finding what works for night without looking like you are wearing a costume.

Even the most understated ceremony involves a certain respect for ritual and pageantry. No one plays more of a significant role than the bride's attendants.

When you have a passion for something then you tend not only to be better at it, but you work harder at it too.

Design is about point of view, and there should be some sort of woman or lifestyle or attitude in one's head as a designer.

Until we have begun to go without them, we fail to realize how unnecessary many things are. We've been using them not because we needed them but because we had them.

It’s supposed to be hard. If it wasn’t hard, everybody would do it. It’s the hard that makes it great.

No religion can be considered in abstraction from its followers, or even from its various types of followers.

They are very different. Women who are empowered by it and have choices based off of their sexuality, are very different from the ones that are being taken advantage of.

You will be a happier person if you don't do what you want to do, most of the time

All endeavour calls for the ability to tramp the last mile, shape the last plan, endure the last hours toil.

I don't accept the argument of people like David Horowitz that the government should impose some sort of predetermined political balance on academic research.

Grown-ups always say that things are complicated.

Even a nod from a person who is esteemed is of more force than a thousand arguments or studied sentences from others.

I'd love to collaborate and write a song with Will Gallagher from Oasis. I think he's a great songwriter.