Stephanie Szostak

“I love that New York City is a true melting pot.”

“I painted with my husband a portrait of a naked Serge Gainsbourg draped with a French flag, and it hangs in our bedroom. I love gritty and dark art like what the German couple Herakut does.”

“My name is actually Polish. It's my husband's name. Most people say 'Zaw-stak,' but it's 'Show-stack,' like you're going to a show, eating a stack of pancakes.”

“I started with commercials - for shampoo, pancakes, insurance, Volvo. I did a Lux soap commercial with Sarah Jessica Parker. And I got a role in an indie film called 'Satellite' that did well in festivals.”

“I played golf competitively as a teenager. I actually took a year off after high school and just played golf and went to a university in France for maybe a month and dropped out.”

“We don't have drama in public schools in France. I had never taking an acting class.”

“People in fashion treat it as a business... I guess Hollywood is a business, too, but you talk about story: you talk about a more artistic world than in fashion.”

“I'm a golfer and have had three holes in one.”

“We should all try to embrace our own quirkiness.”

“I studied business in school, so I worked for Chanel in marketing. And I also worked part-time in an office. So I had office jobs. And then I realized I needed to get the hell out of there, just realizing there was no fulfillment.”

“I remember passing through New York in college and thinking, 'I'm going to come back here.' The energy just made me think of Europe - everyone walking, seeing the delis and flowers outside. It just felt very familiar. I loved it right away.”

“People are so obsessed with making their careers and having a big house; then you realize that kills your dreams. It even kills what makes your life because you get so busy inside.”

“My dad's American, and my mom's French. I lived in France for the first 18 years of my life, then came here to go to school at the College of William and Mary. I studied marketing. I really didn't know what I wanted to do, so I thought that's what I should do - study business - because it would give me the best chance to find work.”