Don’t sacrifice yourself too much, because if you sacrifice too much there’s nothing else you can give and nobody will care for you.

The only love that I really believe in is a mother’s love for her children.

We live in a dark and romantic and quite tragic world.

People who say that yesterday was better than today are ultimately devaluing their own existence.

I am a fashion person, and fashion is not only about clothes -- it's about all kinds of change

A respectable appearance is sufficient to make people more interested in your soul

Don't look to the approval of others for your mental stability

In a meat-eating world, wearing leather for shoes and even clothes, the discussion of fur is childish.

Dieting is the only game where you win when you lose!

Clear thinking at the wrong moment can stifle creativity.

We need houses as we need clothes, architecture stimulates fashion. It’s like hunger and thirst — you need them both.

Fashion and music are the same, because music express its period too.

When people want to be liked for what they did, they should stop.

Don’t overact the story of your name. Overact the story of your work.

Stuff your brain with knowledge.

People who do a job that claims to be creative have to be alone to recharge their batteries. You can’t live 24 hours a day in the spotlight and remain creative. For people like me, solitude is a victory.

Fashion is a language that creates itself in clothes to interpret reality.

The woman is the most perfect doll that i have dressed with delight and admiration.

I want everyone to wear what they want and mix it in their own way. That, to me, is what is modern.

Luxury is the ease of a t-shirt in a very expensive dress.

Reinvent new combinations of what you already own. Improvise. Become more creative. Not because you have to, but because you want to. Evolution is the secret for the next step.

The secret to modeling is not being perfect. What one needs is a face that people can identify in a second. You have to be given what’s needed by nature, and what’s needed is to bring something new.

I’m very much down to earth, just not this earth.

Fashion is about going ahead, not about memory.

I do my job like I breathe — so if I can’t breathe I’m in trouble.

Fashion is about two things: the evolution and the opposite.

I had an interview once with some German journalist—some horrible, ugly woman. It was in the early days after the communists—maybe a week after—and she wore a yellow sweater that was kind of see-through. She had huge tits and a huge black bra, and she said to me, ‘It’s impolite; remove your glasses.’ I said, ‘Do I ask you to remove your bra?

The elegance is as physical, as moral quality that has nothing common with the clothing. You can see a countrywoman more elegant than one so called elegant woman.

Forgiveness isn’t something I’m preoccupied with — turning the other cheek isn’t my trip.

I would like to be a one-man multinational fashion phenomenon.

Like poetry, fashion does not state anything. It merely suggests

Chanel is an institution, and you have to treat an institution like a whore – and then you get something out of her

Fashion does not have to prove that it is serious. It is the proof that intelligent frivolity can be something creative and positive

The French say you get hungry when you’re eating, and I get inspired when I’m working. It’s my engine

For me, Chanel is like music. There are certain notes and you have to make another tune with them

Success nullifies. You then have to do it again, preferably differently

For every book you buy, you should buy the time to read it.

Youthfulness is about how you live not when you were born.

I'm open to everything. When you start to criticize the times you live in, your time is over.

Books are a hard-bound drug with no danger of an overdose. I am the happy victim of books.

Guilty feelings about clothes are totally unnecessary. A lot of people earn their living by making clothes, so you should never feel bad.

Logos and branding are so important. In a big part of the world, people cannot read French or English--but are great in remembering signs

Never use the word “cheap”. Today everybody can look chic in inexpensive clothes (the rich buy them too). There is good clothing design on every level today. You can be the chicest thing in the world in a T-shirt and jeans — it’s up to you.

One is never over-dressed or underdressed with a Little Black Dress.

I love classic beauty. It’s an idea of beauty with no standard.

I never touch sugar, cheese, bread... I only like what I'm allowed to like. I'm beyond temptation. There is no weakness. When I see tons of food in the studio, for us and for everybody, for me it's as if this stuff was made out of plastic. The idea doesn't even enter my mind that a human being could put that into their mouth. I'm like the animals in the forest. They don't touch what they cannot eat.

Fashion is neither moral or immoral, but it is for rebuilding the morale.

If you stick to something doggedly, you are off to a bad start.

You cannot fake chic but you can be chic and fake fur

What i like about photographs is that they capture a moment that’s gone forever, impossible to reproduce.

Music gives color to the air of the moment.

Absurdity and anti—absurdity are the two poles of creative energy.

Fashion is ephemeral, dangerous and unfair.

I like to reinvent myself — it’s part of my job.

The iPod completely changed the way people approach music.

I'm very down to Earth, I'm just not from this Earth.

Respect is not creative ... Chanel is an institution, and you have to treat an institution like a whore — and then you get something out of her.

Forgiveness is too easy. I can forget by indifference, but not forgive. I prefer revenge.

When people talk about the good old days, I say to people, 'It's not the days that are old, it's you that's old.' I hate the good old days. What is important is that today is good.

Think pink but don't wear it

Sweatpants are a sign of defeat. You lost control of your life so you bought some sweatpants.

Buy what you don’t have yet, or what you really want, which can be mixed with what you already own. Buy only because something excites you, not just for the simple act of shopping.

These are fat mummies sitting with their bags of crisps in front of the television, saying that thin models are ugly. Fashion is about dreams and illusions, and no one wants to see round women.

The purpose of life is life.