• For me, Chanel is like music. There are certain notes and you have to make another tune with them.

• When I took over Chanel, nobody wanted it anymore. People said don’t touch it, it’s dead, it’s over. I saw possibility for the years to come.

• I'm never content with what I do. I live in a sort of permanent dissatisfaction. I think that's the secret to doing things well.

• I like imagination -- and the way I think things could be, had been, or should be -- better than reality.

• If you want respect for your past, it means that you have a problem with your present and even more with your future.

• Fashion's life is short. It's six months, six months, six months. It's not something you do for a great future.

• Forgiveness is too easy. I can forget by indifference, but not forgive. I prefer revenge.

• I am a fashion person, and fashion is not only about clothes -- it's about all kinds of change.

• The imagination can transform all sorts of personal insanity into elements of self-invention, and you need to make use of this.

• Don't look to the approval of others for your mental stability.

• I'm open to everything. When you start to criticize the times you live in, your time is over.

• A respectable appearance is sufficient to make people more interested in your soul.

• The most important thing is to do things, not to have done them.

• I hate leisure, except reading. I'm really a person made to work, if sketching is considered work.

• I try not to be sentimental and obsessive about possessions. I love collecting, but I hate owning.

• Loving someone is fine, but they have to love you back or it doesn’t work.

• There is something unexciting about buying something exciting online. I like the physical contact with the goods.

• Nothing scares me more than people with some doll collection. As a child, I never played with anything like toys. I wanted to be a grown-up.

• Florals are for middle-aged women with weight problems.

• Chanel is an institution, and you have to treat an institution like a whore – and then you get something out of her.

• I hate the word “avant-garde.” It was used, overused, and often used for useless things. So I do not use that word any longer.

• I am not allowed to have a favorite bag because I have to create the next one. I have to like change to keep it alive.

• Believe it or not, I love rap.

• Some designers think they do Art, but they think other designers do not.

• I prefer revenge: Forgiveness is too easy.