Andre Leon Talley Quotes

The most luxurious item is a beautiful bed and beautiful, simple sheets.

I just need green. I need to wake up and see grass and squirrels. I don't want to see skyscrapers.

When I was a young boy, growing up in Durham, North Carolina, the women in my family were truly passionate about their clothes; nothing was more beautiful to me than women dressing with the utmost, meticulous attention to accessories, shoes, handbags, hats, coats, dresses and gloves to attend Sunday church services.

Luxury is...to be able to take control of one's life, health, and the pursuit of happiness in a way that is joyful.

I love people - it is not the fashion, it is the people in fashion I love.

Some days are good; some days are not so good. Some days are really exciting. Some days are just tedious. You just have to get up out of bed.

People need to be edited; life needs to be edited. I need to be edited.

The zenith of elegance in any woman's wardrobe is the little black dress, the power of which suggests dash and refinement.

Drekitude is the lowest point in the lowest ebb. It could be your look. It could be your shoes. It could be that you're standing wrong. Drek is a total, total, total hot mess.

I don't tear down. I prefer to build up.

People love fashion exhibits because they can fantasize. They can respond to a dress even if they can never wear a dress like that.

At an early age I discovered the beauty in pictures in 'Vogue' magazine and Ebony magazine, and I would read 'The New York Times.' I had to make my own world within my world because I was an only child.

I do believe there's a heaven. I do believe that God has given me the resilience and the survival skills to withstand the chiffon trenches.

Beauty is health. Health is beauty.

I think people look great in black. I love that what stands out is the person, especially. Black just conveys a kind of drama, even if it can be quiet drama. It does lend to the wearer a sense of confidence.

Money isn't everything, but it is when you start thinking about putting money away for your retirement days.

I personally go to the airport looking like a homeless person, because I think people will leave me alone. But I dress myself with my luggage - all my luggage matches.

I love Russian culture. I don't know the young Russia, I'm not at all familiar with young Russia, but the old school Russia is good enough for me for the moment.

Wearing clothes should be a personal narrative of emotion. I always respond to fashion in an emotional way.

I know what it is like to be brought up with unconditional love. In my life that came from my grandmother.

I'm so sick of mermaid dresses, trains, borrowed bling-bling, and a pose.

Uggs can be as chic as heels for women.

Russia is a place of great culture. If you've read Tolstoy's "War and Peace", Dostoyevsky, Pushkin, Chekhov...the culture of the great Russian literature is amazing. The human narrative you get out of "War and Peace" is universal.

When I have interns, I always say, 'Handwritten thank-you notes can make a difference.' People remember that - not an e-mail, a handwritten note in an envelope.

I only take risks in couture, but I don't take risks in athleticism.

Waiting in line for something mundane is very boring. Waiting for my doctor to see me and waiting for my dentist to see me, yes, that is boring.

In my day you didn't speak until spoken to.

You come to Paris, you get true originality, and it's wonderful.

The happiest moments of my childhood were spent on my grandmother's front porch in Durham, N.C., or at her sister's farmhouse in Orange County, where chickens paraded outside the kitchen's screen door and hams were cured in the smokehouse.

There is room in today's world for men to wear dresses.

You cannot live your life in the elitist world of fashion and not step out or you're disconnected. You have to realize that fashion is not the endgame.

I only watch MSNBC for the news.

First Ladies have always been held like specimens under a media microscope.

I suppose the most daring thing I've ever done is try to water ski. And that was not successful.

I think it's important that models be healthy.

It's incorrect to assume you can be a fashion editor because you blog, if you don't have experience to look at fashion in a professional way.

I don't understand the world of the Internet. I just type up on my computer.

The late Estee Lauder says you can never wear white shoes after Labor Day. But of course, in today's world, that does not exist.

Look at 'American Idol,' which I don't look at. Those winners haven't become household names except for Jennifer Hudson, and she was a reject. You can't aim to be a household name. You just have to be successful.

People have always been fascinated by people in the public eye and what they wear, what they are doing, but not in a tabloid way. Tabloid celebrities are a turnoff. A lot of celebrities...you wonder why they are celebrities.

I'm usually at home and in bed by 10 o'clock. I do not want to be out at anybody's New Year's Eve party.

Mrs. Obama has a hug - a sincere and friendly embrace - that has become familiar to countless supporters from coast to coast. And when she talks to you, she focuses all her calm attention on your face.

It's always great to have things from France at a wedding. It's symbolic of style, of culture, of taste.

One my favorite things is to go to the provinces of Russia and see the 18th century wood churches with the onion dome architecture. These humble wonders of incredible imagination of architects that were obviously not living in places like Paris or London, but they've created these amazing churches.

Fashion illustrator Antonio Lopez was a major part of my early career.

Reality TV, although I'm a part of it, I think reality TV is a terrible thing.

Like Hillary Clinton before her, Mrs. Obama has always been a working woman. She is a lawyer turned hospital administrator turned political right hand. It is a unique resume.

I always feel comfortable, basically in any situation except perhaps airports.

Snooki and Honey Boo Boo. These are big celebrities in the U.S. You want to throw up.

On 9/11, that morning, I was in a Christian Dior Couture appointment at the Hotel Pierre.