Andre Balazs

“All good hotels tend to lead people to do things they wouldn't necessarily do at home.”

“I often compare putting a hotel together to old-time movie production. You come up with a story line, you hire the writer, the director, the stars, the set designer.”

“I don't think it ever does any harm in any business to feel that there is someone there who cares about it. If you look at any business, fashion being the most obvious, the aura, or the reality of the designer, is part of what creates it. It's true in luxury goods stores and in good food stores. It leaves a palpable sense that someone cares.”

“One of the few luxuries left is travel. And the aspect of travel that is luxurious is not the movement, but the being there.”

“Soho is a gritty former mercantile area that has, of course, evolved into the most bourgeois neighborhood in New York.”

“Bathtubs, pools, water - to me, it's a very essential part of being grounded and sensual and feeling yourself.”

“I think it's fair to say more adultery goes on in hotels than any other place in the world.”

“I love water - I'm an Aquarius, but that has nothing to do with it - and I've never been away from water in any place.”