Kate Spade

“I was preppy, then suddenly switched around age 14. I asked my mother to go to this vintage store, and she let me buy a leopard swing coat, pink cigarette pants, and lime-green gloves.”

“I remember someone once said there is a practical aspect to my designs, and I remember thinking, 'That doesn't sound so creative,' but that is actually the truth. There is a practicality to it. I don't design just to design. There is a reason and, hopefully, an interesting reason behind it - that is where my creativity comes in.”

“My mother was very good at encouraging me to dress however I wanted to dress. My sisters would sometimes think, 'Oh my God, you let her buy that fuzzy leopard coat at that vintage store?' I thought, of course, I looked like Audrey Hepburn.”

“I like my stationery to be funnier, like, 'Here's my note, and it's an elephant with a lady smoking a cigarette on top.'”

“I loved fashion, I really did, but I was not obsessed with it. I wanted to be behind the scenes, like in that movie 'Broadcast News.' Holly Hunter - her I wanted to be.”

“No one realizes how hard parenthood is. I am not saying going into the office is easy. It's not. But parenthood, as fun as it is, is not for the fainthearted.”

“When you're trying to be a parent and a businessperson at the same time, that is the most stressful thing you could do.”

“Everyone loves to get a letter. I love sending them. I love getting them.”

“I find color optimistic and enthusiastic, and I adore it.”

“I think the details and the quality are so important that it has to have an emotional tug. Even if it's the simplest shoe, it has to have something that says, 'Oh, I have to have you.'”

“I love lamps. I can't stand overhead lighting. I have to have everything on a dimmer.”

“'Frances' is a longtime family name on my dad's side. My grandfather, father, brother, and my daughter's name is Frances.”

“The idea of recklessly spending money - even though it sounds like it's lots of fun, it's fashion - isn't interesting to me. It is a business.”

“I work from home a lot. I think I get as much work done at the office as at home, and I'm used to working with people who don't work in the office. I don't really care where they are, even if they're on a banana leaf somewhere. If they deliver their work, I am completely fine. I don't need someone sitting at their desk to produce.”

“I really wish I worried less.”

“Every time I go to the market, Andy says, 'Don't forget the Triscuits!'”

“Sometimes I shoot out of bed like it's a relay race, and I'm on the phone, leaving voice mails.”

“I collect books - a lot of books.”

“People have this impression that I'm a little kooky, but I'm actually very OCD. I love order and organization. I'm a big list maker. But if I cross off too many tasks, and it's hard to see the remaining ones, I have to start a new list. Now that's OCD.”

“Being a mother adds an enormous amount of stress to your life. You need to make sure you're there for everything.”