Alexander McQueen

I work with people I admire and respect. It's never because of who they are.

Rap music's been around for too long now to be inspirational. The words are, but the music isn't.

I can design a collection in a day and I always do, cause I've always got a load of Italians on my back, moaning that it's late.

Now I design what I want to wear, and it works that way.

I come from a different era and I design clothes for our era. I think of people I want to dress when I design.

There is something sinister, something quite biographical about what I do - but that part is for me. It's my personal business. I think there is a lot of romance, melancholy. There's a sadness to it, but there's romance in sadness. I suppose I am a very melancholy person.

I find beauty in the grotesque, like most artists.

I always wanted to be a designer. I read books on fashion from the age of 12.