Marriage was never a destination with me.

I've always liked wrinkles. When I was a young girl, I used to make lines on my face with my nails because I loved Jeanne Moreau. I always wanted to be older; I always added years to my life. For the longest time, if people thought I was older, I would take it as a compliment.

I never knew what I wanted to do, but I knew the kind of woman I wanted to be.

I used to be very insecure about my curly hair, because I lived in a country where everybody had blonde straight hair.

My biggest vice is playing solitaire on my iPad. It's bad. I mean, it's ridiculous.

Ireland is also quite nice. So is Amsterdam.

Eighteen months before I was born, my mother was in Auschwitz. She weighed 49 pounds. She always told me that God saved her so she could give me life. I was born out of nothing.

I was born in Belgium. I went to school in England and in Switzerland, then I came to America, so I really feel like I am a citizen of the world.

The real story is that I am very free, that I've managed to be who I wanted to be without compromising.

Usually, the fairy tale ends with the girl marrying the prince. But mine started as soon as the marriage was over.

Harbour Island in the Bahamas is beautiful, with turquoise water and pink sand.

All women are the same, really: They are strong, but they are afraid of their own strength.

I'm not tired of who I am. That would be sad!

If you like trekking, go to the Himalayas or Peru. I love those kinds of trips. But it all depends on your own life and what you like and what you expect.

I design for the woman who loves being a woman.

I never like to think that I design for a particular person. I design for the woman I wanted to be, the woman I used to be, and - to some degree - the woman I'm still a little piece of.

I had good legs, and I loved showing them off.

I am a traveler. I am a nomad. I rarely sleep in the same bed more than three or four nights. And I know hotel life better than anyone.

If you're a good person, the goodness will continue through your descendants.

All I can tell you is that I've never met a woman who is not strong, but sometimes they don't let it out. Then there's a tragedy, and then all of a sudden that strength comes. My message is let the strength come out before the tragedy.

The way I design generally is very much travel-oriented because that is my life. That's why I make clothes that are so light and so easy to pack and a little bit seasonless.

What I think I sell with my clothes is confidence, so hopefully all my dresses, my accessories, are friends to the women. When you open the closet, and your eyes are swollen, and you don't like the way you look, you go to your friends.

I had arranged a birthday party for him and my children, who are all Aquarians. Instead, we got married. I ran out of excuses. It was just us and my children.

I wanted to be an empowered woman, and I became an empowered woman. And now I want to empower every woman. And I do it through my clothes, I do it through my words, I do it through my money, I do it through everything.

Work and children I could have. But the husband was just too much.

I am not allowed to be afraid. My mother made me like that. As a child, if I was afraid of the dark, she would lock me in the closet. Things like this. And she would talk about the time she spent in the concentration camp, but not about being afraid, only about the good side of it.

A challenging economy is always good for design. It unites necessity and functionality. You are forced to be creative with poor materials.

I was terrified the first time that I had a big problem in my business. I was obviously terrified when they diagnosed me with cancer in 1994. I was terrified when my son used to drive too fast. But I do believe in the fact that fear is not an option, so I always try to face it and not be afraid.

I don't like to talk about my dreams. I like to make them happen. I prefer to talk about them when they're done.

I always was fascinated with China, because I was born in Europe, and for us, China had this fascination and mystery. The first time I came here was in 1989. They were on bicycles, and the speed of the growth has been incredible.

I've always been inspired by women, and my mission was to inspire women. I always wanted to become a certain kind of woman, and I became that woman through fashion. It was a dialogue. I would see that the wrap dress made those women confident, and made them act with confidence.

I adore dark chocolate.

My mother said that we're so lucky to be women. It's not that men are weak. Men are men. We're two completely different animals.

I travel in so many different ways; I travel high, I rough it... it all depends on who I travel with.

My clothes are great for a honeymoon: They're light and sexy, colorful and pretty, and not expensive.

I gave up on my looks a long time ago.

Women are strong. We can do it all. But not always at the same time.

I can honestly say that I understand women very well. If you understand yourself, you understand women, because, in the end, all women are the same.

The most important thing is to be healthy, to drink a lot of water, to fight gravity as much as possible. I am one of the few people who decided I wasn't going to do any invasion with my face.

I am almost a vegetarian, and I meditate, do yoga and love to hike.

I'm not someone who calculates things.

Women inspire me... so I enjoy women's stories and biographies. I am interested in all women.

I'm all about empowering women. And by lining them up against the wall and weighing them, surely you are making them feel more like meat than ever - even if it's little meat, if you know what I mean.

My favorite days are the ones where I deal only with my own team, design, marketing, working on the next accessories collection.

Bali and the Aman resorts are all very luxurious, great places to go.

I'm not the only one; most people's mothers are the most influential person in their life. But my mother survived the camps, and she was very strong. She made me strong, but she wanted me to be strong. That's more important.

The iPad! What is better designed than that? I read magazines on it, I play Scrabble. I use it for everything.

Fashion Week is so important for designers.

I've been working seriously in giving fashion a place that it deserves.

I was lucky because I got so successful so early, and when you get successful early, then you can afford to be a little bit humble.