Tom Ford quotes:

When you are having fun and creating something you love, it shows in the product. So when a woman is sifting through a rack of clothes, somehow that piece of clothing that you had so much fun designing speaks to her; she responds to it and buys it. I believe you can actually transfer that energy to material things as you're creating them.

I believe in living life the way that you want to live it every day, and if you do that, you don't really need to have New Year's resolutions.

When I was a little kid, all I wanted to do was to escape what I thought was the country and get to a city. Probably film and television had influenced me so much, I really thought the key to happiness was living a very artificial life in a penthouse in New York with martini glasses.

I love to design. I am a commercial fashion designer. I always design jackets with two sleeves. I don't design jackets with three sleeves, or the layers and layers come off like little dolls from Russia. Fashion for me is a creative endeavor, but it is not art for me.

I am a spiritual person in an eastern religion kind of way. I learned that happiness for all of us is a switch that you flick in your brain. It doesn't have anything to do with getting a new house, a new car, a new girlfriend, or a new pair of shoes. Our culture is very much about that; we are never happy with what we have today.

But as an adult working in the fashion industry, I struggle with materialism. And I'm one of the least materialistic people that exist, because material possessions don't mean much to me. They're beautiful, I enjoy them, they can enhance your life to a certain degree, but they're ultimately not important.

I am not someone who likes cocktail parties or large dinner parties, but I have to attend them often. I much prefer very small dinners with close friends.

I went to a fashion show, and this silver-haired guy was staring at me with these piercing water-blue eyes. It scared me because I absolutely saw and knew my entire future.

I am really a loner after all; I am really not a social person. Because of my job, people think I am out every night, but I really hate all that. I am somebody who likes to be alone and see some close friends. I am a shy and introspective person.

The seventies is what I love. Soft, touchable beauty is what I love.

There's a different kind of comfort that comes from knowing that you are putting your best foot forward. It's called psychological comfort. Look at a picture of the Coney Island boardwalk in 1925. Men were in full-on three-piece suits, hats. They may have only had one suit. But they pressed it. They made it look as good as possible.

In the early Seventies, I had shoulder-length hair, bell-bottom pants, love beads and shirts that laced up at the front. But then I smartened up.

Students in the '60s were responsible for great changes, politically and socially.

I don't work for money any longer. I'm fortunate enough not to need to work for money, but I work for pride; I work because I love to work, and so the idea that one could lose control of one's own name and that things could be produced with your name on that you were not proud of scared me.

I'm a believer in fate and in fulfilling your destiny. I've always had a kind of inner voice that I have learned to listen to.

My grandmother was probably the first person who I thought was beautiful. She was incredibly stylish, she had big hair, big cars. I was probably 3 years old, but she was like a cartoon character.

My own skin-care ritual is quite simple and straightforward; I don't like a lot of fuss, surprisingly. My products are designed to make you look and feel better. I think there are a lot of men out there who want and need the same products.

When I am on my deathbed, I don't think I will be thinking about a nice pair of shoes I had or my beautiful house. I am going to be thinking about an evening I spent with somebody when I was twenty where I felt that I was just absolutely connected to them.

I told myself that I would not come back to women's fashion until I felt I had something new to say. I feel that fashion has become too serious and that the actual customer's needs have not really been addressed. Fashion needs to make one happy. It is a luxury and should enhance one's quality of life.

I'm living the exact life I planned on living when I was five. My life has taken some turns and changes that I didn't anticipate, and it has brought me different things. I thought material things would bring me happiness, which they didn't. But through this, I have learned what things are important and what aren't.

We live in a material world. I'm not saying that beautiful things don't enhance our lives. But, in our culture, we're never happy.

I haven't had any plastic surgery - despite what people think, this is my nose. I have had Restylane and Botox, but I don't think of that as plastic surgery any more.

I probably do have an obsessive personality, but striving for perfection has served me well.

I think you should suffer sometimes to be attractive and beautiful, so I cut the clothes very slim because I like to feel the clothes on my body.

I love black dresses. I think everyone should own a lot, but black dresses don't sell online because on the computer they don't read like anything.

I don't think fashion has to change every five minutes. I'd like these to be clothes you can wear for a long time - ten, 20 years; pass on to your daughter. Why buy vintage when you can open your own closet!

I live, I shop almost exclusively on the Internet. I've bought cars on the Internet. I watch television, I do everything on it. I even watch my son online.

Advertising is, of course, important because advertise is the final design. It's the last layer that speaks to the customer, that tells them what you have.

I think the 1970s will always be the decade for me. Obviously, I grew up in that era, but the beauty standard was touchable, kissable.

I understand that I have a certain look that can be used to my advantage. I know the power of that when I walk into a room and talk to people, and I can use it as an advertising tool. Now I am actually selling me, my face, my thoughts. So I am my guy.

As a designer, design director or any creative person, you have to hire great people, support them and make them feel comfortable so they can contribute and give you their best.

I was not good at team sports, I have to say. I'm quite good at individual sports, but I was not good at team sports, so I wasn't good at baseball and football.

Certain directors are known for a certain kind of beauty; it becomes their signature.

I hate tricky facial hair. If your facial hair is too spotty in places, shave. Just forget about it.

There aren't many strong or charismatic candidates today, because many people can't withstand the scrutiny.

What is important is that we stop and realize, 'Okay. This is fine. I can enjoy that.' But what is really important, what I'm really going to take away with me from this life, is my connection with other people.

My grandmother was probably the first person who I thought was beautiful. She was incredibly stylish, she had big hair, big cars. I was probably 3 years old, but she was like a cartoon character. She'd swoop into our lives with presents and boxes, and she always smelled great and looked great.

College campuses were once a hotbed of political activity.

Your connections with other people are important, our connection to the earth.

As a fashion designer, I was always aware that I was not an artist, because I was creating something that was made to be sold, marketed, used, and ultimately discarded.

If my parents had discouraged me, I would have turned out very differently. They raised me in an open-minded, liberal environment.

The most important thing is to cleanse and moisturise your face twice a day. Use eye drops. If your eyes are white, you look healthy; you look fresh. Every man should have a magnifying mirror. If you look good magnified, you are set to go.

Once upon a time we did not focus on a president's private life.

L.A. is my American city.

My customer has her own sense of style and knows herself well. My goal is to help women become the best version of themselves.

A man should never wear shorts in the city. Flip-flops and shorts in the city are never appropriate. Shorts should only be worn on the tennis court or on the beach.

Your name is a funny thing. It stands for what you're about, and everything I do is really about pride.

We've become a little spoiled with menswear in particular because, of course, we've come off a period in the '70s and '80s when Armani, which is very soft, dominated menswear. And we've become obsessed with comfort. I actually don't like that.

Both film and fashion are businesses where the audience doesn't feel or see the work that goes on behind the scenes.

I like to just have fun and be silly and say pretty much whatever comes into my mind, do pretty much whatever I want.

I grew up in New Mexico, and the older I get, I have less need for contemporary culture and big cities and all the stuff we are bombarded with. I am happier at my ranch in the middle of nowhere watching a bug carry leaves across the grass, listening to silence, riding my horse, and being in open space.

To me, beauty and sadness are very closely linked. Truly beautiful things make me sad because I know they are going to fade. When I see a beautiful 20-year-old boy or girl-and they are breathtaking-I am filled with a kind of sadness. But maybe they are beautiful because we know they are not permanent and they are in a kind of transition.

I was bullied every day at school because I carried a briefcase. I could have left it at home. But I thought it looked great! I didn't understand why anyone else didn't think so.

Just because one is spiritual doesn't mean that one doesn't like crocodile, cashmere. We live in a material world. We still experience these things. It doesn't mean to completely disregard them.

I'm very aware that when my friends and I sit around over dinner these days, the conversation invariably turns to how crass the world has become. Tweeting? It's one of the silliest things ever.

I hate going out for lunch during a workday because it slows down my pace and ruins my rhythm. I prefer to eat at my desk. Actually, I wander around the design studio with a plate in my hand as I dine on, for example, salmon sashimi and a salad of tomatoes and mozzarella. I often have a bit of dark chocolate after lunch.

Real fashion change comes from real changes in real life. Everything else is just decoration.

Dressing well is a form of good manners.

Dressing well is a kind of good manners, if you ask me. When you're standing in a room, your effect is the same as a chair's effect, or a sculpture's. You're part of someone's view, you're part of that world, and so you should dress well. I find it's a show of respect to try to put on your best face and look as good as you can.

Dressing well is an expression of manners.

A lot of the things I did - it's not going to sound anything but egotistical - if I'm lucky and I did the right thing, they will be at Zara way before I can get them in the store, and I don't like that.

I think that they haven't been able to perfect a good facelift for a man.

You always notice a facelift on a woman. It's a tightness around the ears, and the scar is usually inside the ears. If I suspect it's been done, I usually move around until I can see it. But with a man, it actually pulls your beard and your sideburns back, and that's what's so strange.

The dynamics of film directing and fashion design - in the ways that I've done it - were not dissimilar.

We have the Terminator as governor, and we had an actor as president, so why shouldn't we have a fashion designer as a senator?

I'm a fashion designer. What I do is artistic, but I'm not an artist because everything I do is destined to be sold. That's not to say that you can't be an artist and a fashion designer. I think some designers are artists.

For Fleur de Chine, I imagined the romantic and mysterious women from Asia's cinematic past-from the '30s femme fatale in a cheongsam and dark lipstick, to the'60s Hong Kong heroine of In the Mood for Love. I wanted to capture that fascinating, exquisite and slightly scandalous femininity.

Fashion is everything. Art, music, furniture design, graphic design, hair, makeup, architecture, the way cars look - all those things go together to make a moment in time, and that's what excites me.

I am actually extremely casual in certain environments. But one of the reasons I like living in London, I like the formality of it, as compared to the formality of America - or informality. I like putting on a suit. I like putting on a tie.

I'm actually very introverted. I'm very shy. I'm very emotional.

It's like everything in your life is wonderful, but you have so much wonderful - this is all going to sound horrible - but when you have so much wonderful, it isn't wonderful because you don't actually have time to enjoy it.

The idea of losing someone that you love could throw you into a situation where you could not see your future and you really would be living in the past.

I don't believe in playing around much with suit cuts. I like a fairly classic shape that gives a man strong shoulders, a fitted waist, and long legs. Classic simplicity always works.

You have to look inside yourself and you have to say, well, what am I about? Why does anyone need this? Why does anyone need a 'Tom Ford' jacket? What do I believe in?

In my adult life I've understood that if I put an enormous amount of love and honesty into something, usually that shows in the end.

A few times in my life I've had moments of clarity where the silence drowns out the noise and I can feel rather than think.

I think that monogamy is artificial. I do not think it's something that comes naturally to us.

When I was young, I wanted to be a movie star. But I realized that you have no control being an actor. So I went to architecture school in NYC, because I was crazy about buildings. Then I began to realize that I got more excited about Vogue coming out each month than I was about my projects.

When I was a kid, I thought I was going to be an actor. I actually studied acting when I was at NYU, and I made a lot of television commercials - that's actually how I put myself through NYU and through college.

British men are peacocks. You see a lot more style on the streets here than you see anywhere else, on every level.

Choose your team carefully. So much of your success is due to the people who you surround yourself with. Your friends, your family, and the people that you work with -- they all play an important role in inspiring you and supporting you and giving you stability. These are the people in your life who will be honest with you.

I swore that I wouldn't be one of those parents who leaves a Bugaboo pram parked in the communal entry hall. Well guess what, ours is there right now.

If you don't need to quit drinking, you shouldn't quit drinking. I used to really love to drink, and especially living in London, it's just built for drinking...

Women are objectified in our culture. And more and more, it takes a great deal of confidence, especially as a woman, to break the mold. You know, you're afraid that you're going to covered in a magazine as a "fashion don't." That's why you see all these girls on the red carpet looking the same.

Do you know how rare it is in parts of America to actually see 'an outfit'? France? I don't want to be anti-French, but there isn't a more unattractive group of people on the streets.

Tweeting? It's one of the silliest things ever.

On the one hand, I want to go off and live in the desert with my dog and sculpt things out of adobe.

September 11th was a moment when America had the sympathy of the world.

A lot of people think a high armhole is restrictive, but it gives you total movement because it's cut right up to your arm.

I probably do have an obsessive personality, but striving for perfection has served me well

At home, off-duty, I wear T-shirts from Fruit of the Loom - but I have them tailored.

I'm very direct. I don't have tantrums. I don't yell or shout. I do expect an awful lot from my staff, but no more than I expect of myself.

Just like girls need to learn to be comfortable in heels before they go out in them for the first time, a man should try wearing a suit throughout a normal day. I do most things in a suit-and sometimes even in a tuxedo-and so I'm really comfortable in one.

The world might be a very scary place if it were only run by Virgos.

If I had been a dog walker, I would have been the most successful dog walker in Paris.

I am a perfectionist. This job is a total ego thing in a way. To be a designer and say, 'This is the way they should dress; this is the way their homes should look; this is the way the world should be.' But then, that's the goal: world domination through style.

There's nothing wrong with ankles. But only if you're playing football in the park.

Banking types should take their cue from Gordon Gekko. Or pick the best-looking banker in their firm and copy him.

I am totally fearless! Well, of course, I'm not totally fearless. I worry constantly and obsess over things, but I just don't let fear stand in the way of doing something that I really want to do.

This sounds crazy, but I know so many famous people, I'm just not intimidated by anyone. I feel really comfortable with it.

I guess I'm just one of these people who, when I decide I'm going to do something, I just do it.

I think we're very uptight in America. You have to remember that we're descended from Puritans. Whether or not the country is now composed of immigrants, our culture as American really begins with the landing of the Pilgrims and a puritanical view of things.

If you're at the Oscars, there's not a man on that red carpet who is not wearing make-up. Most straight actors I know get quite used to it. Even when they go out in real life they grab some sort of bronzer and they throw it on. They dye their eyebrows, they dye their lashes - they know the tricks.

I was on the train from London to Paris, and all of a sudden it just popped into my head: I'm going to do the Don Loper fashion show from 'I Love Lucy.'

Part of fashion is newness. It's got to be a new combination of elements that's shocking-stunning-beautiful all at the same time. But it doesn't have any emotion.

Fashion is harder than the film industry. You have to constantly be able to crank out hit after hit after hit on demand and on a very tight calendar. I've come back, I've lost it, I've come back again. It's really as good as your last collection.

When I read about young designers selling 51 percent of their company to someone else, I cringe. I want to say, 'Don't do it - call me first.'

I have a driver in London because I am slightly dyslexic and cannot drive in the U.K.; after all, the traffic runs the opposite way to that in the United States.

If I'm sending emails, and I get all wound up and stressed and don't know what to do with myself for 20 minutes, I just go soak in hot water and lie there, thinking, 'What should I do?' So it's meditative.

I find a bath meditative and usually prepare myself for the day in this manner.

I couldn't have cared less about Gucci when I first went there - but soon after I arrived, I cared a lot.

Beyonce in real life is actually quite quiet and very sweet.

I'm a very serious person.

I was not popular. I was the kid in school that was bullied.

It's really never fair to judge people because none of us know what's going on inside anyone else's head.

A film should be somewhat personal. I think that whatever you create you have to be true to yourself and create something that feels right to you.

A film, since it is primarily a visual medium, should really be like a silent film. You should be able to watch something and understand what was going on and use voice when you need to communicate something you can't necessarily communicate visually. The book is the opposite. The book is an inner monologue which is beautiful.

A good trick as you get older is to get a thick pair of glasses that have a dark frame. Everything else can droop and slide but that pair of dark glasses stays sharp and crisp. Look at Cary Grant. Look at Vidal Sassoon.

Anyone with a long-term partner, anyone with a long-term lover, if that lover dies, you could easily see yourself in a situation where you couldn't see your future and you would be living entirely in the past. It's about that loss.

Artists, like yourself, are born with a need to express that's just innate.