Coco Chanel

"He will soon be claiming that the Resistance has liberated the world."

"There is nothing more comfortable than a caterpillar and nothing more made for love than a butterfly. We need dresses that crawl and dresses that fly. Fashion is at once a caterpillar and a butterfly, caterpillar by day, butterfly by night"

"Fashion is made to become unfashionable."

"How many cares one loses when one decides not to be something, but to be someone."

"In 1919 I woke up famous. I'd never guessed it. If I'd known I was famous, I'd have stolen away and wept. I was stupid. I was supposed to be intelligent. I was sensitive and very dumb."

"Youth is something very new: Twenty years ago no one mentioned it."

"Fashion is architecture. It is a matter of proportions."

"Nothing is ugly as long as it is alive."

"In order to be irreplaceable one must always be different."

"As long as you know that most men are like children, you know everything."

"Women think of all colors except the absence of color. I have said that black has it all. White too. Their beauty is absolute. It is the perfect harmony."

"Fashion is not something that exists in dresses only. Fashion is in the sky, in the street, fashion has to do with ideas, the way we live, what is happening."

"Success is often achieved by those who don't know that failure is inevitable."

"The most courageous act is still to think for yourself. Aloud."

"Fashion fades, only style remains the same."

"Don't spend time beating on a wall, hoping to transform it into a door."

"Ask me who I don't dress!"

"I was a rebellious child, a rebellious lover, a rebellious couturière — a real devil."

"A girl should be two things: classy and fabulous."

"The best colour in the whole world is the one that looks good on you."

"Chanel, General De Gaulle and Picasso are the three most important figures of our time."

"Throughout her long life, Chanel moved between two worlds, one real the other imaginary. Unloved, she lived for love. Despite her countless conquests, from English noblemen to Russian dukes, she spent years alone, work her only solace."

"Despite the work of a dozen biographers … Chanel remains an enigma."