Steve Madden quotes:

I don't fret much about the natural life spans of shoe companies. If stores don't do the right things, they cease to exist, and that doesn't trouble me at all.

I'm a New York story.

I could design an $800 shoe line; it's easy. You use the best materials and you can make beautiful shoes. It's easier than making great shoes for $90.

People are afraid because I'm candid. They're always worried I'm going to get into trouble.

You need to define yourself in the marketplace.

I have been in the field working with my birds for 36 years and I don't think a day goes by that I don't see or learn something new.

Growing is an important part of the business, but more important than that is to get better.

I've been making shoes my whole life.

So much of design is context.

I could design an $800 shoe line it's easy. You use the best materials and you can make beautiful shoes. It's easier than making great shoes for $90.

My strengths as a businessman lie in the design and sale of women's shoes, and I have never been comfortable with complicated or technical legal or business documents.

I am guilty of stupidity, arrogance, and greed.

I'd like to work with Damien Hirst.

There are a lot of people who get support from a thriving business.

What inspires me is what I see people wearing on the streets of the world from New York to London and beyond. I get my ideas and inspiration from pounding the pavement all over the world. Today, fashion is dictated by individual style. To me, the fashion of the future is anything that a young guy or girl feels good wearing as long as it's put together in the right way.

You have to be a little contrite to get redemption.