The very beginning of European aesthetics started from Florence. Everything here was beauty, money, and creativity, the power of the good money.

The idea of my fashion shows is that you can't understand where you are; it's something surreal.

I never wanted to be a creative director.

I always lose every single pencil I ever had. So I can draw with everything. With pencil, with pen.

There is something in Shanghai that is very exciting and alive - the idea of a city with two different souls, one from today and another from a long time ago, is amazing.

Beauty has no boundaries, no rules, no colors. Beauty is like a religion. You can include everything inside it.

The idea that a man should be wearing something different and more eccentric is obviously the oldest idea on earth.

Here in L.A., people really open their houses in an easy way, nothing too complicated. You can go in your flip-flops.

I think that there is not really a difference between a 'Peanuts' and a beautiful Renaissance painting. There is something very romantic in the 'Peanuts' - it's at the same level of a novel or a Jane Austen story or a beautiful embroidered rose fabric. It is a piece of romanticism.

This is the power of fashion: the capability of allowing people to express themselves.

The only dream I have in my life is to be a little piece of my dad, because he was really happy.

Sometimes when people talk about me in fashion, I feel - I don't want to say uncomfortable, but I still don't believe that I'm in 'fashion.'

I think we need to dream.

I spend a lot of time in Paris, in Milan, and in New York, and Rome is a little bit different. There is something in Rome, incredible, like in a Fellini movie. Everybody's screaming and laughing very loud. It's something that can give me more energy in terms of freedom.

I love to come to L.A. because it's one of the most inspiring places because there are no rules.

The way you dress is really the way you feel, the way you live, what you read, your choices. That's what I want to put into Gucci.

I've been an avid collector since I was a child.

It has been a marvellous experience and a great gift collaborating with Madonna. Now that I have had the chance to see her working, I truly understand why she is so grand! I believe she is a true artist, and I am crazy about her.

I'm obsessed with trompe l'oeil - the idea of something that is existing and is not existing.

My idea for Gucci was crazy, but that's the only idea I had. I was sure I'd be fired after the first show.

My father was a shaman. He told me that time doesn't exist. He didn't use a clock. He didn't know when my birthday was.

Gender and sex are about rules which we have invented, but we are animals; we belong to nature.

I don't have a problem to say I am a good merchandiser, because I love objects.

I think a lot of people feel that they want something softer. Things are changing. It's about individuality, and in a way, it's romantic.

Creativity is not about the fame.

I don't feel the pressure of the market - otherwise, I wouldn't be able to work.

I'm not scared of beauty, but if you fall in love with a beautiful man, it's not easy. It's easier to be in love with an ugly man. Beauty has a kind of power.

I had two different kind of parents. My mother was obsessive with movie stars and cinema and Hollywood because she worked in movies. And my father was obsessed with beauty everywhere - in art, in nature, animals.

My life - it's a piece of work. And my work is a piece of life.

Fashion is not about product; it's about an interesting idea that you can't resist buying into.

I usually talk about clothes in terms of a story rather than a colour.

Fashion should be genderless; how people perceive the idea of beauty can vary from one to another.

I have a big passion for flowers and nature.

I love to give voice to things that are not very visible.

All of us, we are not one thing: we're always between two worlds, and the idea of not being sure is very appealing to me.

The idea that I'm 45 doesn't mean that I have no creativity. I'm like a student: it's the same - it's not a war!

In fashion, people are very focused on the future, but I really love to talk about the present.

Your memory is not my memory.

I am obsessed with fashion, like my mother, and I am obsessed with art, like my father.

I always explain through images and characters what fashion means, and describing scent is almost the same. It can be very powerful. It can really change the perspective a person has of you.

Some women are forced by men to look a certain way to be accepted by the general public, and I find that terrible.

To be against something or someone, it's a dangerous thing.

I feel happy when I work. I don't care if tomorrow I will be fired.

If you have rules, you let creativity sleep.

I adore pink; it's very powerful. It makes you feel sweet and sexy, also if you are a man.

We live in a world that is full of product. We have too much.

Luxury means that you show the way you dress with eccentricity.

The fragments for the past, for me, are not without life.

I am a collector of jewels, old jewels.