My manners also came from when I was in college and began participating in critiques. You have to speak with someone respectfully about their work and be honest and open, without hurting them.

May I respond by merely saying, "I hate crocs. May they please go away."

If you don't have experience sewing, start with that, because that will inform what you are able to design.

I found early on in teaching, if you're too blunt an instrument, the students discredit you and think you're just being mean. They're not interested in what you have to say.

I'm constantly reminding myself that the world owes us nothing. We have to make our way and we have to work hard, persevere and make our own way in the world because the world isn't waiting for us, so let's let the world know we are here.

I learned early on in teaching how easy it is to hurt a young person and that's never my intention.

From my own experience, there are so many people who believe that the individual can change. The individual doesn't have to be LGBT.