Do you know when you go to a very boring dinner and you sit down and you have the chance to talk with somebody and it's so interesting that you learn so much that night that you go back and say, "Oh, finally, I met someone who inspired me"? I love that.

The only time I was really surprised was the reaction to the [shoot dedicated to the] BP oil [spill in 2010]. I didn't expect it at all. It was for the August issue, perhaps one of the less relevant months, but there was so much buzz. It was picked up all over the American television, but I defended my position. I don't understand those that say that a magazine such as Vogue should not talk about these things.

When we launched our [ Vogue] site around five years ago, I had already started this process on paper. We are now building an enormous portfolio of photos, we've uploaded two million photos and we have three people that review them.

You know, I can be very tough in my answers, and that was good for the magazine because it didn't mix focus points - it was to be extravagant, experimental, innovative. But the web site has made it more human. So the Web site is good for the magazine.

I thought Italian Vogue had always been considered the most experimental, avant-garde magazine. If I was going to use the same kind of language and the same kind of photos or images on the web site, it would be a disaster because Vogue has its own world, and it could be a little bit cold, you know? We don't give what you call a service.

I don't like fashionistas. They only wear the brand. You want to become a fashionista? Easy! Spend money.

Today it's normal. Photos used to be a support to the text, but we turned things around, reducing the words to a minimum.