I'm always taking into consideration how the shoe will look on the foot, its relation to the ankle and the leg - that's very important. I often see shoes that seem interesting or nice until a woman puts them on. then a lot of shoes look very clunky, and nobody likes to see that.

People tend to fear the ghosts in their own family. You feel these family curses and think, 'If it happened to my father, it could happen to me.'

When you do something you love, you have a passion for it. It comes naturally. Staying true to yourself and doing what you love keeps you going...everything else falls into place.

My mother was a huge influence on me - she was a free spirit and helped me appreciate, from a very early age, that everyone is different.

I have no problem with the idea of comfort, but it is not an important thing aesthetically. If you look at a shoe and immediately say it looks very comfortable, in terms of design, it is not going to excite me. Of course, I am not putting nails in my shoes to ensure everybody is in pain, but a heel is not a pair of slippers and never will be.

I wouldn't take it as a compliment if someone looked at one of my shoes and said, 'Oh, that looks like a comfortable shoe.' There is a heel that is too high to walk in, certainly. But who cares? You don't have to walk in high heels.

I have this disease that if I feel good somewhere, I... buy a house.