"When I am designing, I make a selection of music that will be the inspiration behind the whole collection... I will be blasting that music—it becomes a journey I take in my brain to transfer that sound to the clothing."

"My main goal when I started my collection – and I didn’t think beyond this actually – was that I wanted to dress rock stars and the people that go to rock concerts."

"I am inspired by New York..."

"American television is popular everywhere and its what I grew up on."

"Be true to yourself and figure out what it is that you are good at."

"... I am a New York designer and the things are made in New York..."

"I don’t answer to anyone."

"I was always attracted to the way rock stars dressed and the way their girlfriends dressed."

"We do all the first samples here and all the production in the garment center, within these few blocks... I love the process."

"We picked up Madonna at The Ritz to go to the Gaultier show together, and she took off her coat. At this point she hadn’t even said a word to me, but she leaned over and said to me, Anna, I have a surprise for you, and she showed me she was wearing my dress."

"I think whenever people talk about the 'Anna Sui woman,' they're talking about someone that's probably kind of more downtown, and there's always like this ambiguity: Is she a good girl, or a bad girl?"

""It's kind of a dream come true, because to me fashion is not just the clothes, it's all the accoutrements that go with it..."

"I love research. I love learning..."

"I'm still dreaming."

"I live for fashion."

"You have to be in the right place at the right time and understand that and know when it is your time and how you react to it and how you respond to it."

"I read about two young ladies that went to Parsons, and when they graduated Elizabeth Taylor opened a store for them in Paris and I thought okay-that's all I have to do!"

"I think a dream can take you farther than anything."

"Every time that I wanted to give up, if I saw an interesting textile, print what ever, suddenly I would see a collection."

"I think that I appeal to the girliness in all of us."

"You have to focus on your dreams, even if they go beyond common sense. How could this young girl from the suburbs of Detroit become a success in New York? It was always that dream."

"I love the whole story of why something happened when it did and that’s what I put into the collections."

"I’ve known a lot of talented people but the people that really, really, achieve success – there is ambition, focus and drive behind it."

"They don't need me to be another Establishment designer. That's not what I'm good at..."

"With the way that the times are, we're all looking for a little fantasy... Fantasy is such an important part of my fashion..."

"I'm always about optimism and exuberance. It's what I feel about fashion."

"We manipulate fabric."

"She really is one of our best."

"Longing and desire goes further than instant satisfaction. That's human nature."

"To stand out in the crowd I liked the color purple."

"She’s... been a champion for the Garment District, raised money for the Bowery Mission, and made concerted efforts to help the victims of global tragedies—which is to say that she’s a kind person, who, it was agreed upon in a car after the show with other journalists, happens to also be one of the nicest people in fashion."

"It doesn’t do a critic well to try to neatly connect the dots between Sui’s inspirations and her clothing—the way she mashes up her many references is a singular skill that seems innate and above logical explanation."

"I bought a fur coat with my first pay cheque and it lived better than I did for years."

"The man that owned the company that I worked for called me into the office and said how can you be on our payroll and have your own New York Times ad! This has to stop! And I said but it can't I have orders to ship. And he said well you're fired. And that's how I started my business."

"The sexiest thing about a bikini is that it leaves something to the imagination, which is the best part."

"Sui has never failed to stage a fantastical runway show..."

"Before eclecticism and the magpie mix were fashion world buzzwords, there was Anna Sui."

"To me, fashion is like a mirror... It's a reflection of the times. And if it doesn't reflect the times, it's not fashion. Because people aren't gonna be wearing it."

"She used to be a stylist... and I think that really sharpened her eye, she knows how to tell a story with clothes."

"When I think of her, I think of Mick Jagger. Jimi Hendrix. Heart. Stevie Nicks."

"Anna Sui helped define the look of Generation X."

"What stayed true about Anna was this wide eyed wonder, she's always been able to bring such beauty into what she does. I feel like an Anna Sui show is an education."

"...a woman who’s been nothing less than American fashion’s best storyteller for nearly three decades."

"Anna Sui is one of the most important and influential American designers of the past twenty-five years."

"Sui's gleeful eye sees poetry where fashion conformists see only the absurd."

"I grew up in Middle America and in the suburbs..."

"The lynchpin of her unique career is encyclopedic curiosity as much as commercial acumen, studied process and a deep respect for the techniques and traditions of her craft."

"...all the formulas have flown out of the window."

"It's almost as though she's making one long movie and this movie jumps through times and places but the central character stays the same kind of girl."

"I had a really typical, suburban, middle-class upbringing. The only thing out of the ordinary was being one of the few Chinese families in town."