Great design should tell a story.
One of my fondest memories was when I was in London as a young, independent businesswoman and stayed at Claridge's. I knew I had made it. To me, Claridge's is the most glamourous hotel in the world; I regard it as my home away from home. I am honoured to become part of the hotel's legacy and rich design history.
Everything is sort of built in a way that to me suggests intelligent design. But at the same time, there's a lot of things in life where you say to yourself, well, if this is God's plan, it's very peculiar. And you have to wonder about that guy's personality, the big guy's personality.
Design and the urgency to preserve it - not as a museum relic, as a living experience. And for me, something that lives alongside mass-produced goods. I'm not saying get away from it. My battle is there is a marketplace for what people wear and what they eat and care about how things are made and not just that they were made, and that's the core focus. I know where things come from, I know their families. I do that throughout my life - I know who makes my suits, and I know where my eggs come from. Everyone and everything is accounted for and has accountability.
Whenever I study a genre of film-making, Steve Spielberg is the first guy I go to. Even Catch Me If You Can, which is a very lightweight kind of thing, if you just look at the economy of the way he designs his shots and works around actors, the craft is amazing.
The design of the notorious Palm Beach County "butterfly ballot" in the 2000 Presidential election is certainly one of them. But I would say most of the time this is less about a conscious attempt to manipulate an outcome, and more about pure ineptitude.
Music is not a language. Any musical piece is akin to a boulder with complex forms, with striations and engraved designs atop and within, which men can decipher in a thousand different ways without ever finding the right answer or the best one.
We should tell more young designers not to worry about what they're going to do with their design careers. They should start their own brands. Designers should create their own beautiful brands that can change the world.
When you're curious, you find lots of interesting things to do.
I love clothes, I love the world of fashion, I'm really fascinated by it. It's something that's always been in the back of my mind, and if time, energy and money permits, I would absolutely love to design a line someday.
I would bring Patti [Smith ] in to the editing room [working on the Dream of Life] and say, "This is a great moment for a voiceover, or a poem," and then we'd bring in some sound design.
In designing for the first lady, I tried to sort of be in her shoes, but I didn't really look at her as an important political figure. I looked at her as a woman who would like to wear a beautiful dress to an important gala.
Now he's [Cinna] arranging things around my living room: Clothing, fabrics, and sketchbooks with designs he's drawn. I pick one up and examine one of the dresses I supposedly created. You know, I think I show a lot of promise," I say. Get dressed, you worthless thing.
Clothes can be important. I am learning this. For instance, often when I design and I wonder what is the point, I think of someone having a bad time in their life.
