After the design is firmly fixed, the decoration is added. Decorating is the final enhancement.

Design is about discipline and reality, not about fantasy beyond reality.

Life is all about manners. Nothing else matters.

Flair is a primitive kind of style. It is innate and cannot be taught. It can be polished and refined. When a person has flair, a grounding in the principle of design, and self-discipline, that person has the potential of being an outstanding designer.

Decorating is not a look, it's a point of view.

Decoration is really about creating a quality of life, and a beauty in that life that nourishes the soul, that makes life beautiful.

So many young decorators are trying to reinvent the wheel, and the results are sometimes very dubious. They're striving to do things that have never been done before. Quite often it is done without authority, without knowledge, and without a background in taste. They need to be educated about the past, and they need a richer vocabulary.