Rick Owens

“I started out very commercially, and I never even considered doing runway shows, as I never thought I'd ever be able to afford them.”

“I can't imagine having to choose clothes in the morning. It would drive me crazy.”

“I like cheese and ice cream.”

“Ceremonies are about groups agreeing on codes of behaviour and collectively committing to them... Community, responsibility and kindness usually top the list.”

“The fashion world can be very strict on the standards of beauty, and I like pushing it around a little bit. I like teasing those ideas a little bit, by promoting quieter kinds of beauty.”

“I want to be the Iggy Pop of fashion, I want to be the shirtless guy all the time.”

“Anything new is met with suspicion and has been throughout the entire history of time, but it's just evolution once you get into it. It's silly to choose to be afraid - you just have to explore, investigate, and figure out how to adapt.”

“I will still forever be referred to as the Goth guy. Which is fine. Because you know when you look at the fashion calendar I guess I am that more than most. I get it. It's okay. And there is that side. There is a kernel of truth there.”

“I like discipline and the idea of restraint.”

“There's a huge adolescent side to me that I can't grow out of.”

“Hollywood is about self-invention, and that's where I invented myself.”

“Relationships are compromises.”

“It's hard for somebody to live with me, I think. I'm very inflexible and that can't be easy.”

“Art is supposed to be some kind of transcendent moment. Fashion has sometimes done that.”

“I think in times of hardship, you have to step up your game and fight back, and creating is the strongest way to do that.”

“Italy is where I create, and Paris is where I am judged.”

“I prefer e-mailing to phone calls - I like how thoughts can be reconsidered, corrected, and improved in an e-mail. Like an old-fashioned love letter. And instructions can be carefully specified and referred to later. Am I robotic? Maybe.”

“I always hate to sound like I know everything and make judgments about people and systems. I avoid making judgments, but I know the system that I want to follow.”

“I think the fashion world has gotten as sophisticated as the art world ever was.”

“I've always really admired and championed people who were uncomfortable with the way they were and made a resolve to change it, for better or for worse.”