Diana vreeland quotes

The first rule that a geisha is taught, at the age of nine, is to be charming to other women...Every girl in the world should have geisha training.

You don't have to be born beautiful to be wildly attractive.

This is a weakness of the world. Someone thinks they've discovered something for the first time. They want to be authoritative about it.

Still, my dream in life is to come home and think of absolutely nothing. After all, you can’t think all the time.

The first thing to do is to arrange to be born in Paris. After that, everything follows quite naturally.

There's only one very good life and that's the life you know you want and you make it yourself.

You gotta have style to get up in the morning

No one knows how hard one works.

I always say I hope to God I die in a town with a good tailor, a good shoemaker, and perhaps someone who's interested in a little quelque chose d'autre.

If it's not there in fashion, fantasize it.

Oh, but I think that thoughtfulness and manners are everything.

You gotta have style. It helps you get down the stairs. It helps you get up in the morning. It's a way of life. Without it, you're nobody.

The best thing about London is Paris.

Vogue always did stand for people's lives. I mean, a new dress doesn't get you anywhere; it's the life you're living in the dress, and the sort of life you had lived before, and what you will do in it later.

If you had a bump on your nose, it made no difference so long as you had a marvelous body & good carriage. You held your head high, & you were a beauty You knew how to water-ski, & how to take a jet plane fast in the morning, arrive anywhere, & be anyone when you got off.

Peanut butter is the greatest invention since Christianity.

People who eat white bread have no dreams.

Lighting is everything in a color.

I'm a person who is only invested in the pleasures and enjoyments of life. All the rest is left to the men. I've always remained what you might call "feminine" about the whole [work] thing.

I was always sort of a loner, I suppose. I always had to think out everything for myself... I suppose that is what you call a loner.

You know the greatest thing is passion, without it what have you got? I mean if you love someone you can love them as much as you can love them but if it isn’t a passion, it isn’t burning, it isn’t on fire, you haven’t lived.

I wonder about prisoners. They're told, "You are free, you are innocent, you can go anywhere." I'm sure they usually feel nothing. They don't burst into tears or hysterics or joy or "I told you so." It's nothing. To be on the straight path isn't a bloody thing. It's just ordinary.

Exaggeration is my only reality.

I was always fascinated by the absurdities and luxuries and the snobbism of the world that fashion magazines showed. Of course, it’s not for everyone...But I lived in that world, not only during my years in the magazines business but for years before, because I was always of that world-- at least in my imagination.

Most people haven't got a point of view; they need to have it given to them––and what's more, they expect it from you.

A world without leopards, well, who would want to live in it?

Of course I was always mad about the ballet russe, mad about it!

Beauty has nothing to do with possession. If possession and beauty must go together, then we are lost souls. A beautiful flower is not to be possessed, it's there to be beheld. … It's there for your pleasure.

The West is boring itself to death! And talking itself to death!

Within every girl is the possibility of arousing emotion. Without emotion there is no beauty.

The bikini is the most important thing since the atom bomb.

Why don't you have a room done up in every color green? This will take months, years, to collect, but it will be delightful-a melange of plants, green glass, green porcelains, and furniture covered in sad greens, gay greens, clear, faded, and poison greens?

There’s only one thing in life, and that’s the continual renewal of inspiration.

God was fair to the Japanese. He gave them no oil, no coal, no diamonds, no gold, no natural resources — nothing! Nothing comes from the island that you can sustain a civilization on. What God gave the Japanese was a sense of style—maintained through the centuries through hard work and the disciplines of ambition.

I'm terrible on facts. But I always have an idea. If you have an idea, you're well ahead

Too much good taste can be boring

Don't look left nor right and never compete. Never. Watching the other guy is what kills all forms of energy.

For goodness sakes, beware of curls… It is a great art to do them so that the girls not only look modern - but do not suddenly look very vulgar.

Black is the hardest color in the world to get right-except for gray.

I never felt comfortable about my looks until I married Reed Vreeland. I believe in love at first sight because that's what it was. I knew the moment our eyes met that we would marry.

To be contented—that’s for the cows.

The only real elegance is in the mind; if you've got that, the rest really comes from it.

Elegance is innate. It has nothing to do with being well dressed. Elegance is refusal.

I think i always had a perfectly clear view of what was possible for the public. "Give'em what they never knew they wanted".

This is a great shame, but of course there have to be some things in life that not everybody can have, and great perfume is one of them.

Unshined shoes are the end of civilization.

All my life I’ve pursued the perfect red. I can never get painters to mix it for me. It’s exactly as if I’d said, ‘I want rococo with a spot of Gothic in it and a bit of Buddhist temple’—they have no idea what I’m talking about. About the best red is to copy the color of a child’s cap in any Renaissance portrait.

Where would fashion be without literature?

You're not supposed to give people what they want, you're supposed to give them what they don't know that they want yet.

We all need a splash of bad taste. No taste is what I am against.

The body must stay fit. Fit people like themselves much better.

It’s not about the dress you wear, but it’s about the life you lead in the dress.

The best time to leave a party is when the party’s just beginning. There’s no drink that kills except the drink that you didn’t want to take, as the saying goes, and there’s no hour that kills except the hour you stayed after you wanted to go home.

I think we live only through our dreams and our imagination.

Too much good taste can be very boring. Independent style, on the other hand, can be very inspiring.

Pleasure is everything.

Prettiness is not a rent you pay for occupying a space marked 'female'

I've always remained totally myself, which is to say, without an idea... of what to do.

I sincerely believe that energy grows from itself and the more energy you expand the more you create within yourself. I also believe that energy is habit -- which can be created quite easily. In other words, use your energy and more energy flows and then it is very hard to stop it -- as if one would ever want to!

Red is the great clarifier - bright and revealing. I can't imagine becoming bored with red - it would be like becoming bored with the person you love.

The future holds a golden world. It will be for beauty; it will be for intelligent productiveness.

Being vulgar is fine, but oh please just don't be boring.

I certainly didn't learn anything in school. My education was the world.

Money has nothing to do with style at all, but naturally it helps every situation.

Naturally, I’ve always been mad about clothes. You don’t get born in Paris to forget about clothes for a minute.

Water is God's tranquilizer.

I have always felt that the only great thing about an interview is the questions that are asked.

One thing I hold against Americans is that they have no flair for the rain. They seem unsettled by it; it's against them: they take it as an assault, an inconvenience! But rain is so wonderfully cleansing, so refreshing, so calming...

I think laying out a beautiful picture in a beautiful way is a bloody bore. I think you've got to blow it right across the page and down the side, crop it, cut it in half, combine it with something else... do something with it. You've got to make something out of it.

Blue jeans are the most beautiful things since the gondola.

Without emotion there is no beauty

When fashion turns over it brings in little tiny creaks and cracks. This is the fascination and that is where you have to watch every step.

The only thing people are interested in is people.

Never worry about the facts. Just project an image to the public.

I think your imagination is your reality

When I discovered dancing, I learned to dream.

I adore artifice. I always have.

Where Chanel came from in France is anyone’s guess. She said one thing one day and another thing the next. She was a peasant—and a genius. Peasants and geniuses are the only people who count and she was both.

How boring to copy the past -- with all the magnificence of today and tomorrow.

Allure is a word very few people use nowadays, but it's something that exists. Allure holds you, doesn't it? Whether it's a gaze or a glance in the street or a face in the crowd or someone sitting opposite you at lunch... you are held

I mean, a new dress doesn't get you anywhere; it's the life you're living in the dress.

I think part of my success as an editor came from never worrying about a fact, a cause, an atmosphere. It was me—projecting to the public. That was my job. I think I always had a perfectly clear view of what was possible for the public. Give ‘em what they never knew they wanted.

Don't look back. Just go ahead. Give ideas away. Under every idea there's a new idea waiting to be born.

I think allure is something around you, like a perfume or like a scent. It's like a memory ... it pervades.

Pink is the navy blue of India.

All people are meant to be creative in a certain way. What way? Perhaps I was cut out to be a wonderful housewife, with a marvelous sense of cooking, being with my friends, running a perfect house. But I am not ambitious towards anything.

I've never met a leopard print I didn't like.

Poor, darling fellow - he died of food. He was killed by the dinner table.

One is born with good taste. It's very hard to acquire. You can acquire the patina of taste. But what Elsie Mendl had was something else that's particularly American––an appreciation of vulgarity. Vulgarity is a very important ingredient in life. I'm a great believer in vulgarity––if it's got vitality. A little bad taste is like a nice splash of paprika. We all need a splash of bad taste––it's hearty, it's healthy, it's physical. I think we could use more of it. No taste is what I'm against.

The personality is a work of art.

My life has been more influenced by books than by any other one thing.

Fashion must be the most intoxicating release from the banality of the world.

A lie to get out of something, or take an advantage for oneself, that’s one thing; but a lie to make life more interesting—well, that’s entirely different.

You can see and feel everything in clothes.

A little bad taste is like a nice splash of paprika. We all need a splash of bad taste-it's hearty, it's healthy, it's physical. I think we could use more of it. No taste is what I'm against.

I sincerely believe that energy grows from itself and the more energy you expand the more you create within yourself.

It's only intelligent to wish to look after yourself properly.

Style; all who have it have have one thing: originality.

Photographers aren't artists, for goodness sake.

A good photograph was never what I was looking for. I like to have a point. I had to have a point or I didn't have a picture. This is what I've always found so fascinating about paparazzi pictures. They catch something unintended, on the wing... they get that thing. It's the revelation of personality.

You've got to have style, it helps you get out of bed in the morning.

I like to indulge myself by sitting up late without having to do anything in the morning.

I wasn't a fashion editor. I was the one and only fashion editor.

If it isn't a passion, it isn't burning, it isn't on fire, you haven't lived.

I loathe narcissism, but I approve of vanity.

I read everything! I would have read the phone book if you put it in front of me. I just read.

In a Balenciaga you were the only woman in the room - no other woman existed.

There was a time when it was considered vulgar and unnecessary to pursue money, but today anyone who doesn't believe in money must be out of their minds!

Balenciaga was incredibleI was madly infatuated with his clothes. His clothes were devastating. One fainted. One simply blew up and died.

A funny person is funny only for so long, but a wit can sit down and go on being spellbinding forever. One is not meant to laugh. One stays quiet and marvels. Spontaneously witty talk is without question the most fascinating entertainment there is.

I'm for everybody. There are no set rules. But if one's not a joiner. To hell with all of them!

Balenciaga often said that women did not have to be perfect or beautiful to wear his clothes. When they wore his clothes, they became beautiful.

No one had a better sense of luxury than Coco Chanel, She really had the spirit of the 20th Century.

This world without a leopard…I mean, who would want to be here?!

Don't you loathe the word "workaholic"? It has nothing to do with an important thing, that you and your secretary are at the office until 6:30. But that's life, kiddo. 24-hour work doesn't go on in America. 24-hour work is what Italy and Holland did after the war. The lights never went out!

I have a terrible time remembering exactly when my birthday is. Age is totally boring.

I think when you’re young you should be a lot with yourself and your sufferings. Then one day you get out where the sun shines and the rain rains and the snow snows and it all comes together.

Before even the technique, there is a dream. Chanel had it. The dream is everything.

What do I think about the way most people dress? Most people are not something one thinks about.

The two greatest mannequins of the century were Gertrude Stein and Edith Sitwell - unquestionably. You just couldn't take a bad picture of those two old girls

When I arrived in America, I had these very dark red nails which some people objected to, but then some people object to absolutely everything.

Balenciaga did the most delicious evening clothes. Clothes aren't delicious any more.

Never fear being vulgar, just boring, middle class or dull.

Every girl in the world should have geisha training

If you think all the time every day of your life, you might as well kill yourself today and be happier tomorrow.