Quotes from Alek Wek

All the exhausting aspects of my job are made worthwhile because I get to experience so many different cultures. It makes you really appreciate the memories.

When I was a girl, civil war in Sudan forced me to flee my home town of Wau.

I think the fashion industry has gotten to a place where it is embarrassing.

Bones inside clothes. That was war to me.

Many live to eat, instead of the other way around.

I have eight brothers and sisters, so I'd like to have a few children.

I've eight brothers and sisters - five girls, four boys. I am the seventh.

The most beautiful things are not associated with money; they are memories and moments. If you don't celebrate those, they can pass you by.

My mother always has embedded in us that you guys rock in different ways, and to be able to celebrate that with each other is just beautiful.

When I talk, it shouldn't just be black girls listening.

Education is the key to the future.

If we don't take care of each other, who will? ... I don't want to ever say, 'I should've done something.'

A lot of people especially want to know about going into business. But it's a two-way conversation.

Beauty does not mean one thing but not something else.

I feel, in 2015, when we see human beings and children dying to cross the ocean, trying to find safety, something more must be done to help them because refugees are just like me and you.

I would love to continue to model but also have a family.

London is like my second home. I've still got friends there from school and from when I first started in the modelling business - people such as Karen Elson, Jasmine Guinness, Jade Parfitt.

For me, you have to have some kind of modesty.

I have short hair. It doesn't make me more unattractive than a woman or my sisters that have more longer hair and a bit lighter.

Going back to South Sudan after the independence took place was deeply emotional for me because I had gone through the civil war with my family just before going to seek refuge in London.

I'm trying to grow older with wisdom.

My father made sure of discipline, but my mum, she was serious business.

You've got to make yourself happy. I'm a happy person naturally.

I don't understand when people are being greedy or mean, when they say who should get what, when they get control of someone else's life.