Quotes from Andre Leon Talley

I'd like to be remembered as someone who made a difference in the lives of young people - that I nurtured someone and taught them to pursue their dreams and their careers, to leave a legacy.

I'm usually at home and in bed by 10 o'clock. I do not want to be out at anybody's New Year's Eve party.

First Ladies have always been held like specimens under a media microscope.

I think it's important that models be healthy.

On 9/11, that morning, I was in a Christian Dior Couture appointment at the Hotel Pierre.

The happiest moments of my childhood were spent on my grandmother's front porch in Durham, N.C., or at her sister's farmhouse in Orange County, where chickens paraded outside the kitchen's screen door and hams were cured in the smokehouse.

In my day you didn't speak until spoken to.

Stella McCartney, not only is she a designer, she is a mother of four, and she lives for practicality. She understands what a woman needs to wear to work and what a woman needs to wear when it's time to go out and put on the Ritz!

I think people look great in black. I love that what stands out is the person, especially. Black just conveys a kind of drama, even if it can be quiet drama. It does lend to the wearer a sense of confidence.

Like Hillary Clinton before her, Mrs. Obama has always been a working woman. She is a lawyer turned hospital administrator turned political right hand. It is a unique resume.

When I have interns, I always say, 'Handwritten thank-you notes can make a difference.' People remember that - not an e-mail, a handwritten note in an envelope.

When I do entertain, in the summer, which is rare, I receive my guests on the front porch, set up wicker trays found at Pottery Barn, and serve iced beverages. Anytime I do welcome friends, it's always a tray of canapes or Planters peanuts, jellied candy from Paris, and a good bottle of Sancerre.

I personally go to the airport looking like a homeless person, because I think people will leave me alone. But I dress myself with my luggage - all my luggage matches.

When I was a young boy, growing up in Durham, North Carolina, the women in my family were truly passionate about their clothes; nothing was more beautiful to me than women dressing with the utmost, meticulous attention to accessories, shoes, handbags, hats, coats, dresses and gloves to attend Sunday church services.

I always feel comfortable, basically in any situation except perhaps airports.

Wearing clothes should be a personal narrative of emotion. I always respond to fashion in an emotional way.