My father, who was a cabinetmaker, told me, 'Wood has a grain and if you go into the grain, you have beauty. If you go against it, you have splinters - it breaks.' And I took that as my view of life. You have to follow the grain - to be sensitive to the direction of life.

I never was interested in being part of the fashion world - I just wanted to design shoes. I didn't even know Vogue existed when I was growing up. Vogue, what is that?

I love deep cleavage on the foot. It reminds me of Berlin in 1930s, 'Cabaret.'

I never had the dream to be a great designer. My focus was just to do beautiful things.

I was the youngest kid. When I was five, my sisters were 17, 19, and 21, already becoming women. I would see how different they would be around one another and around men, even my father.

If you do what you love, it is the best way to relax.

There is a heel that is too high to walk in, certainly. But who cares? You don't have to walk in high heels.