Alexander McQueen

You find a lot of ideas from my shows in adverts now. I find it a compliment.

I can design a collection in a day and I always do, cause I've always got a load of Italians on my back, moaning that it's late.

I think the idea of mixing luxury and mass-market fashion is very modern, very now - no one wears head-to-toe designer anymore.

I have been skiing since I was in school, but I'm not great. I am never going to break an Olympic record, I just want to go down the hills, on red or blue runs, but not... black.

I'm mad in the front of my mind, but business-minded in the back.

I've had good times; I've had bad times.

It's usually only the intellectual ones who understand what's going on in what I do.

Youth culture now really looks back and embraces the past, but keeps it contemporary but not sticking to one particular style.

I always wanted to be a designer. I read books on fashion from the age of 12.

I want people to be afraid of the women I dress.

Nicey nicey just doesn't do it for me.

I was three years old when I started drawing. I did it all my life.

I'm not interested in being liked.

I feel more Scottish than Norman.

You can get insular with fashion.

My relationships with producers or photographers - these are relationships that took years.

For a long time I was looking for my perfect equilibrium, my mojo. And now I think I'm getting there: I've found my customer, my silhouette, my cut.

I come from a different era and I design clothes for our era. I think of people I want to dress when I design.

The police need to come down to street level.

I just want to be a wallflower. Nondescript. Just not anything. I don't want to see me.

Really, what I'm aiming for is world domination!

Give me time and I'll give you a revolution.

I think the idea of mixing luxury and mass-market fashion is very modern - wearing head-to-toe designer has become a bit passe. It's a new era in fashion - there are no rules. It's all about the individual and personal style, wearing high-end, low-end, classic labels, and up-and-coming designers all together.

I want to empower women. I want people to be afraid of the women I dress.

Of course I make mistakes. I'm human. If I didn't make mistakes, I'd never learn. You can only go forward by making mistakes.

Rap music's been around for too long now to be inspirational. The words are, but the music isn't.

Menswear is about subtlety. It's about good style and good taste.

I'm not big on women looking naive.

For people who know McQueen, there is always an underlying message. It's usually only the intellectual ones who understand what's going on in what I do.

I was never a big networker, but I was a spin doctor, all those shock shows, that's how I got my first backers. But fashion's a scary industry to be in, especially if you've not grown up with it.

British fashion is self confident and fearless. It refuses to bow to commerce, thus generating a constant flow of new ideas whilst drawing in British heritage.

There is something sinister, something quite biographical about what I do - but that part is for me. It's my personal business. I think there is a lot of romance, melancholy. There's a sadness to it, but there's romance in sadness. I suppose I am a very melancholy person.

I never look at other people's work. My mind has to be completely focused on my own illusions.

Sting's my ideal man, because he's a real man.

I don't want to be too proud, but I have a good personal style.

It's good to know where you come from. It makes you what you are today. It's DNA, it's in your blood.

Some couture collections have everything including the kitchen sink! Everything gets thrown on to make it look expensive. I find it grotesque when clothes hit you in the face and there's no room for fault. But I don't expect to turn things around all by myself. I'm not a saint.

I want to empower women.

As a designer, you've always got to push yourself forward; you've always got to keep up with the trends or make your own trends. That's what I do.

I am a melancholy type of person.

I'm human. If I didn't make mistakes, I'd never learn. You can only go forward by making mistakes.

There has to be a balance between your mental satisfaction and the financial needs of your company.

It's a new era in fashion - there are no rules. It's all about the individual and personal style, wearing high-end, low-end, classic labels, and up-and-coming designers all together.

I think I should be a president. President of the United States.

Fashion should be a form of escapism, and not a form of imprisonment.

Its a new era in fashion there are no rules. Its all about the individual and personal style wearing high end low end classic labels and up and coming designers all together.

Now I design what I want to wear, and it works that way.

When a woman gets dressed up to go out at night, she wants to give 50% away, and hold the rest back. If you're an open book, there's no allure.

Fashion should be a form of escapism and not a form of imprisonment.

I am married to work.

When I'm dead and gone, people will know that the twenty-first century was started by Alexander McQueen.

Clothes and jewellery should be startling, individual. When you see a woman in my clothes, you want to know more about them. To me, that is what distinguishes good designers from bad designers.

I like the idea of infiltrating an area that is not really exposed to me or my work.

You can hide so much behind theatrics, and I don't need to do that any more.

I came to terms with not fitting in a long time ago. I never really fitted in. I don't want to fit in. And now people are buying into that.

Fame should be left to the film stars.

There is no better designer than nature.

Youth culture now really looks back and embraces the past but keeps it contemporary but not sticking to one particular style.