The fashion world doesn't know the word stop, so you have to make sure there are sublime moments every day.

My aim is a very modern Dior, but at the end of the day, I also look back.

I've always seen myself as a small entity, and it will always stay like that. I'm not changing. But I think the big challenge for me taking on the Dior thing is to see how I can connect that to such a huge institution.

Contemporary art for me is a real driver; it propels us into the future. And at the same time, it's what connects us to the past, from a perspective of artistic evolution in which the succession of eras and styles gives meaning to creation.

Both costume and fashion are about telling a story, except that in a ballet the story has already been written by the composer or the librettist.

I see my position in that whole Dior construction very differently from my own brand. My own brand will stand or fall because of me. Dior won't fall if I fall. It will also still stand if I'm not there. I'm coming in there and it's like a - I don't know the English word - like a passage.

I'm shy, but not on a one-to-one basis. Over the years, I have become acclimatised to a bit of publicity.