Fashion has a dark side - it's not all runways and lipstick and fishtail gowns.

I don't believe in one ideal beauty.

I have to bring my A-Game 24/7, between creating, draping, and overseeing a myriad of different brands.

I eat everything, but I moderate; I try to be semiconscious. I don't eat pasta every day, although people who follow my Instagram think I do.

The most significant pieces for me are the ones that come from my drapings. It's emotional because they are created by my hand and then become a collaborative process in the atelier.

Sometimes, late at night on the set of 'Project Runway,' I've been known to pop an interpretive dance.

One of my fantasies is to produce 'Auntie Mame' as a play.

For me, I'll unwind at the end of the day by soaking in Epsom salts. It's the routine I prefer for coming down after crazy days.

If you're entering into fashion in an original way, you have to know your craft, and you have to know your history. You have to be obsessively dedicated. You have to be relentless about making it happen. It doesn't take a bank. It takes passion, love, timing, and luck.

People who devote themselves to a life of style are admirable.

Creative burnout and physical burnout is real. I mean, there are moments when I get home - after overseeing, you know, almost 16 collections a year - where I can't move.

The first time I went to the Met Ball, I was 16. I was an intern there and saved up to buy a staff ticket to the party. That was my favorite experience going. It wasn't the red carpet; it was the experience of being there for the first time.

Obviously, I like very beautiful food, because I think as delicious as food has to taste, it also has to look very beautiful - the process of presentation is very important.

I went through the workroom at Central Saint Martins in London, which is the most competitive workroom of a design school in the world. Very high creativity, very conceptual, very international, age-diverse and cutthroat - people who have master degrees reapplying into a foundation there is just wild to me to launch their careers.

To me, being in fashion is about your work, not about facilitating a lifestyle.

I'm definitely planning ahead for a brand that spans the universe - a Zac Posen universe.

When you make and drape clothing, the scissors are your tool. What can I say about them? They're my babies. And you have to take care of them correctly. You have to have them sharpened, and you can't use them for any other material.

I was very interested in theatre, so my first love of fashion comes from costume, and I think that's pretty clear within my work and the level of theatricality.

There's not one major greatest influence on my career. It would be film and great artists and great imagineers - Jim Henson, Walt Disney, Charlie Chaplin, people who understand the joy of the imagination.

I garden in my Brooks Brothers pajamas and straw hat.

I am a compulsive and concise shopper.

A great trick for frying is to put a popcorn kernel in the oil, and when it pops, you're ready to fry.

As a little boy, my mom would bake with me on the weekends - that was our time together.

I try to push design boundaries using new draping and fabric manipulation techniques every time I approach a new design.

With Zac Posen gowns, it's like making an ornate pastry. Then, sometimes, it's just great to have the perfect chicken soup or consomme. And that's Brooks Brothers.

To be able to buy a plant and plant it, that's a luxury to me.

I am totally unattached to material items.

I don't cook ribs in my own home. I let my dad cook the ribs. He's from St. Louis, Missouri. I like to use a grill, but that's my dad's domain.

I want to be a major force.

At the end of the day, you're not defined, I don't believe, by your financial means. That doesn't make you a better person or a smarter person.

I think it's really important to try to eat seasonally as much as possible. It helps put people in touch with what's happening locally and with nature.

Since the beginning of my career, I have publicly dressed and represented women of all sizes, of all colors. And that's a big part of who I am and what I want to give to the world.

There's something very old-fashioned and luxurious to have a pair of pants and jacket made to your needs and measurements.

Some of the best kitchen discoveries come about through total kitchen disasters.

Don't worry about what's cool and what's not cool. Authenticity is what's cool.

I was born and raised on 'Singin' in the Rain.' It's in my work. It's in me.

Food is everything. Food, friends, family: Those are the most important things in life.

I always end up in the kitchen at restaurants. At events or parties, too, I like to see where my food is prepared or made. I like the theater of it.

I'm not a chef. But I'm passionate about food - the tradition of it, cooking it, and sharing it.

At the end of the day, you can't compete with Mother Nature. If you've got a great tomato, just a pinch of sea salt is all you need.

I personally love grilling, but it's a 15- to 20-minute commitment in entertaining.

I'm a pretty controlled and disciplined person, but my real vice is buying plants and food shopping.

When I'm on the road for fashion shows, I love room service. I think it's one of the greatest things in the world. I usually like to keep it simple with soup, but my big indulgence is French fries or chicken fingers.

One of my goals and dreams is to work in film in the future.

I'm quite a tuxedo junkie, I collect them all year round.

Beyond fashion, I think that culture has a side where they love to shoot you up like a clay pigeon and then take out their rifles. I lived that, and I got to see the perspective from up in the sky.

I think, mind over body, it's real.

I try to be the best that I can be and the best to the people that work for me.

I cherish my time off and the solitude that comes along with it.