Vivienne Westwood quotes:

It's a philosophy of life. A practice. If you do this, something will change, what will change is that you will change, your life will change, and if you can change you, you can perhaps change the world.

The best night of my life was watching the Japanese Noh theater. I've only seen it once, but even saying it now, I think, 'How can I ever have this experience again?' It was so mesmerizing, so complicated and so primordial; I could not believe it.

Liverpool people are famous for liking clothes and fashion; they are very social and lively people, and we know that they like clothes.

Economists treat economics as if it is a pure science divorced from the facts of life. The result of this false accountancy is a willful confusion under cover of which industry wreaks its havoc scot-free and ignores the environmental cost.

It's true the punk fashion itself was iconographic: rips and dirt, safety pins, zips, slogans, and hairstyles. These motifs were so iconic in themselves - motifs of rebellion.

The main message we want to get out there is that climate change is caused by the rotten economic system.

In the morning, I practice 15 minutes of yoga.

You've got to invest in the world, you've got to read, you've got to go to art galleries, you've got to find out the names of plants. You've got to start to love the world and know about the whole genius of the human race. We're amazing people.

When I first saw a picture of the crucifixion, I lost respect for my parents. I suddenly realised that this is what the adult world is like - full of cruelty and hypocrisy.

I love designing at the moment, I'm so happy with my work.

The main message of Climate Revolution is that climate change is caused by the rotten financial system we've got, designed to create poverty and rip off any profits for a small amount of rich people. Meanwhile, it destroys the earth.

But, the thing is, since I always had my own little shop and direct access to the public, I've been able to build up a technique without marketing people ever telling me what the public wants.

I am always trying to find fabrics that are more friendly to the environment - working with Virgin Atlantic, they managed to research into this and find more eco fabrics.

Buy less. Choose well. Make it last. Quality, not quantity. Everybody's buying far too many clothes.

I was still interested in the youth rebellion but never-the-less I stopped being a victim. Stopped trying to attack the establishment realizing that it takes too much of your energy.

My children came out as individuals in their own right. They were not my products. They had their own characters and were very strong-minded. I gave them a lot of freedom when they were still very young. The one thing they got from me is morals. They would never betray anyone. They are really good people.

I think feminists are unaware of the tremendous extent of the role of women in history.

I'm different from any other designer, businesswise, in that I've built this company up and I own it. I never had business hype behind me to promote my image... My image is real... I have never had marketing people telling me what to do.

The young Japanese, especially, love to wear the latest thing and when they come to London they head for my shops as part of what they want to find in Britain.

The thing that makes my clothes really different is that, number one, they are really great designs; they're not tacky; they are very professional; the design is made from lots of decisions.

I think it is a good thing to buy less and choose well - it's good for the environment and to be fair it's also good for me because my clothes are quite expensive.

I don't feel comfortable defending my clothes. But if you've got the money to afford them, then buy something from me. Just don't buy too much.

I don't care how many beauty treatments you have, I don't care which bag you're carrying - you have to have a dress.

It is not possible for a man to be elegant without a touch of femininity.

At one time, I was very angry. I even treated fashion like a kind of crusade: you were either with us or against us, that kind of feeling. Now I know we need ideas, not kicking down a door.

If you're too big to fit into fashion, then you just have to do your own fashion.

Our economic system, run for profit and waste and based primarily on the extractive industries, is the cause of climate change. We have wasted the earth's treasure and we can no longer exploit it cheaply.

I don't care if you get up in the morning and don't wash, don't put any make-up on, don't do your hair, even, but you have to have clothes if you want to look different.

The hippie movement politicized my generation. When it ended, we all started looking back at our own history, looking, in my case, for motives of rebellion.

I don't watch television and I rarely go to the cinema, but I recently watched 'The King's Speech' on a flight. It was so beautiful and so simple.

The bravery shown by Azza Suleiman who dared to stand up for another woman who was being beaten, and paid a heavy price in doing so, is both awe-inspiring and humbling.

I really don't like women who try to be men. All these politicians, I think they're horrendous. We could have a brilliant future, but we have this terrible male vision of destroying everything. They'd better sort themselves out and become more womanly.

I was so upset with what was going on in the world. I just couldn't stand the idea of being people tortured and that we even had such a thing as war. I hated the older generation, who had not done anything about it. Punk was a call-to-arms for me.

I always tried to do things by example, even though I was not a very good mother regarding routines and family life.

We are the most amazing creatures that this world has ever produced, but we seem to also have this herd mentality; we seem to be the most stupid, also.

I think that feminists have definitely underestimated the role that women have had historically. I think I would be insecure if I were to be a man; there's so much pressure on you.

I think dress, hairstyle and make-up are the crucial factors in projecting an attractive persona and give one the chance to enhance one's best physical features.

I always thought we had an environmental problem, but I hadn't realized how urgent it was. James Lovelock writes that by the end of this century there will be one billion people left.

We have got to change our ethics and our financial system and our whole way of understanding the world. It has to be a world in which people live rather than die; a sustainable world. It could be great.

Journalists are usually quite jealous people, especially of intellectuals who are supposed to be in fashion.

Being part of a community with a church at its centre and singin' hymns is a great thing to do.

Every time I have to look up a word in the dictionary, I'm delighted.

I'm frugal. I'm not a very acquisitive woman. I never waste food. If you prepare your own food, you engage with the world, it tastes alive. It tastes good.

I am attracted to people who make this effort in knowing what suits them - they are individual and stylish.

My beauty secret is absolutely no sun.

I didn't want to be a fashion designer, and for a good half of my career I didn't like it. I always wanted to do other things.

I have been asked what would I ban immediately if I could. Advertising.

If you wear clothes that don't suit you, you're a fashion victim. You have to wear clothes that make you look better.

You have a more interesting life if you wear impressive clothes.

Don't just eat McDonald's, get something a bit better. Eat a salad. That's what fashion is. It's something that is a bit better.

All that self-expression has just created a generation of morons, hooked on an endless appetite for rubbish.

I never look at fashion magazines. I find them incredibly boring.

To me, reading a fashion magazine is the last thing I need to do. I've got books I need to read.

I was the first person to have a punk rock hairstyle.

There's nowhere else like London. Nothing at all, anywhere.

I wish you didn't have to design so often. Try to do quality and cut down on quantity. I think fashion is very, very important.

If you saw Queen Elizabeth it would be amazing, she came from another planet. She was so attractive in what she was wearing.

My clothes have always got a very strong dynamic rapport with the body - they are very body conscious, they help you to look glamorous, more hourglass, more woman.

We are so conformist; nobody is thinking. We are all sucking up stuff; we have been trained to be consumers, and we are all consuming far too much.

What I'm always trying to say to the consumer is: buy less, choose well, make it last.

I just use fashion as an excuse to talk about politics. Because I'm a fashion designer, it gives me a voice, which is really good.

Fashion is life-enhancing, and I think it's a lovely, generous thing to do for other people.

A status symbol is a book. A very easy book to read is The Catcher in the Rye. Walk around with that under your arm, kids. That is status."

Why do people think that if you don't dress up, others will appreciate your beauty more - that style will somehow emanate from you? It's rubbish. If you dress up it helps your personality to emerge - if you choose well

The muscular, athletic type is not representative of the human race, who are varied in their physique.

The young need discipline and a full bookcase.

It is extremely difficult to say how long the process actually took to finally achieve my fragrance, Boudoir, because there was a lot of time waiting around for other people.

How impossible it is for us to imagine ourselves victims of disaster. We suffer for the poor people who were thrown into the sea from their cruise ship off the coast of Tuscany, some losing their lives. Imagine a world of accelerating natural disasters, one after the other so that nobody can help anyone else.

Nothing is costed properly and it's destroying the earth. We need to re-educate people that what is good for the planet is good for the financial system.

I remember reading a book set in the future, it was written in the 1870s projecting to 1920, and this time traveler said you couldn't tell the difference between men and women. He saw what was coming.

Buy less, choose well: that's the maxim. Quality not quantity. That's the most environmentally friendly thing you can do.

The best fashion accessory is a book.

I was a punk before it got its name. I had that hairstyle and purple lipstick.

The orb came about because I wanted to do this kitsch sweater for Prince Charles when he went hunting and fishing with his kilt on.

I think it's important to vote.

My clothes are very popular in Japan.

In the 18th century, if women wanted to travel and they dressed as a man, people would not look twice. Your clothes said everything. Also there were masters and servants swapping clothes. You could be anything, your clothes told everything!

I think some people would love to be able to make the clothes I make - and of course, I do influence them, but they keep simplifying, and minimalism doesn't quite work

The arts have only ever interested a small minority of people, which acted as a kind of nursery to support artists.

I like to literally put women on a pedestal

Save the rainforest for your loved ones

I talk to fashion designers and say I want some money to save the rainforest, and they say, 'Oh, I agree with you completely Vivienne. Yes, climate change, it's definitely happening,' but they don't feel that they can do anything about it; they don't even think 'Well let's stop it!'

The only possible effect one can have on the world is through unpopular ideas.

If you hear Anarchy in the UK today your hair stands on end. It gives you the shivers.

We moved into the back, made it into a little 50s sitting room and started to sell the records. We had an immediate success. For one thing, these Teddy Boys were thrilled to buy the records.

There is so much that people take for granted.

I don't think punk fashion is a specter or overemphasized - it made a big impression, as there had never been anything like it before.

I have certain signatures, certain cutting principles. It could be a raw-edged seam; it could be leaving the lining of sheepskin exposed so it's not perfectly finished. I invent new ways to do it, but the end goal is always the same.

When I was a little girl you used to learn to sew all the holes in things, darning socks, but nobody mends things anymore.

The sexiest people are thinkers. Nobody's interested in somebody who's just vain with a hole in their head, talking about the latest thing - there is no latest thing. It's all rubbish.

I have too much product, and I'm trying to rein it in and sell more of my main collection. I wish you didn't have to design so often; it would be good if you could keep on selling the same things for a few years and not have to do new things all the time.

I was born during the war and grew up in a time of rationing. We didn't have anything. It's influenced the way I look at the world.

When I'm in the street, the only people I notice are usually at least 70 years old, because they look really stylish.

Personally I'm not a feminist, as I can't stand puritans.

But, having a perfume and license, in general, is a financial necessity. A designer must, to reap back the money spent on prototypes and all that sort of thing.

Prince Charles is definitely my hero; he uses his position to do only good in this world.

Sometimes you need to transport your idea to an empty landscape and then populate it with fantastic looking people.

There is a real connection between culture and climate change. We all have a part to play and if you engage with life, you will get a new set of values, get off the consumer treadmill, and start to think, and it is these great thinkers who will rescue the planet.

We wanted to step off our island and add the color of the third world. We got gold cigarette paper and stuck it around our teeth. We really did look like pirates and dressed to look the part.

I didn't consider myself a fashion designer at all at the time of punk. I was just using fashion as a way to express my resistance and to be rebellious. I came from the country, and by the time I got to London, I considered myself to be very stupid. It was my ambition to understand the world I live in.

I have always loved the Mao cap, though I hate violent revolution.

I do not approve of museums trying just to get people to come in. Whistler was very, very clear on this.

Shoes must have very high heels and platforms to put women's beauty on a pedestal.

Everybody should have a fair deal; everybody should have the chance to life in this world. If we were evolved as human beings, we would hopefully be able to alleviate suffering in the world.

I've got a real sense of three-dimensional geometry. I can look at a flat piece of fabric and know that if I put a slit in it and make some fabric travel around a square, then when you lift it up it will drape in a certain way, and I can feel how that will happen.

Everybody looks like clones and the only people you notice are my age. I don't notice anybody unless they look great, and every now and again they do, and they are usually 70.

In Italy they take cheap cloth and make it look expensive, but I take expensive cloth and make it look cheap. They just don't understand.

Real art has been... what's the word? Kidnapped? No, that's not it. But, OK, kidnapped by business.

I have considered voting Conservative because I am so against the Labour party.

I've always felt heroic about my life... As a child, I remember little girls in the playground moaning about how boys could do more than they could. I didn't think that was the case at all. My parents didn't treat me as a girl.

I'm not sure what I think about current fashion, though. A few years ago, I would have said it's really, really bad and you hardly ever see anybody looking good. There must be some very good designers in the world.

What changed our lives forever was when Malcolm had the idea to sell rock 'n roll records to trendy customers.

I think some people would love to be able to make the clothes I make - and of course, I do influence them, but they keep simplifying, and minimalism doesn't quite work.

The age in which we live, this non-stop distraction, is making it more impossible for the young generation to ever have the curiosity or discipline... because you need to be alone to find out anything.

I have a company, and I've got to think about that. I'm trying to do my best there, and that's a much harder task. We recycle as much as possible, and we conserve. But I've always been one to save everything - I even walk up stairs on the very inside or the very outside to not wear out the tread.

Popular culture is a contradiction in terms. If it's popular, it's not culture.

I do think we're an endangered species. But that we do have a plan to save the rainforest.

I'm a fashion designer and people think, what do I know?

Print some money and give it to us for the rain forests.

Fashion is here to help make people look very important. If they have good taste and choose what suits them, I give them options on how they can do that. It's always sexy, and it's always with the same result: making women look fantastic.