Alexander McQueen
Give me time and I'll give you a revolution.Collection: Time
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.Collection: Design
I find beauty in the grotesque, like most artists.Collection: Beauty
I come from a different era and I design clothes for our era. I think of people I want to dress when I design.Collection: Design
I work with people I admire and respect. It's never because of who they are.Collection: Respect
I want people to be afraid of the women I dress.Collection: Women
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.Collection: Design
I want to empower women. I want people to be afraid of the women I dress.Collection: Women
Rap music's been around for too long now to be inspirational. The words are, but the music isn't.Collection: Inspirational
Now I design what I want to wear, and it works that way.Collection: Design
My relationships with producers or photographers - these are relationships that took years.
I want to empower women.
There are only a handful of designers that influence other designers, and I have to keep one step ahead of the game.
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.
It's good to know where you come from. It makes you what you are today. It's DNA, it's in your blood.
Fashion should be a form of escapism, and not a form of imprisonment.
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.
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.
I never look at other people's work. My mind has to be completely focused on my own illusions.
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.
When I'm dead and gone, people will know that the twenty-first century was started by Alexander McQueen.
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.
You can only go forward by making mistakes.
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.
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.
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.
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 feel more Scottish than Norman.
I was three years old when I started drawing. I did it all my life.
Nicey nicey just doesn't do it for me.
I'm interested in designing for posterity.
You can get insular with fashion.
I'm not interested in being liked.
Fame should be left to the film stars.
It's usually only the intellectual ones who understand what's going on in what I do.
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.
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.
I hate it when people romanticize Scotland.
You find a lot of ideas from my shows in adverts now. I find it a compliment.
I'm mad in the front of my mind, but business-minded in the back.
Youth culture now really looks back and embraces the past, but keeps it contemporary but not sticking to one particular style.
Really, what I'm aiming for is world domination!
I am a melancholy type of person.
I think I should be a president. President of the United States.
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 am married to work.
I just want to be a wallflower. Nondescript. Just not anything. I don't want to see me.
I always wanted to be a designer. I read books on fashion from the age of 12.
I think the idea of mixing luxury and mass-market fashion is very modern, very now - no one wears head-to-toe designer anymore.