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" My given name was Zahra, which is the 'flower of the desert.' I don't look anything like the flower of the desert. My name was changed by my grandfather to Iman, which means 'have faith.' And it meant to have faith that a daughter would come. "

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" When everyone is telling you, 'You're so beautiful, there's nobody like you,' you begin to think it's true. But of course there is nobody like you. "

Iman

You

Nobody

Think

" I believe the universe has great plans for us. When you are young, you don't learn that. "

" There are highlights when you become irreplaceable as a model, like when you become a muse to designers. They look at you differently; you're not a coat hanger for hire. "

Iman

You

Look

" I don't do anything by myself. I have a whole crew to get me ready every day. "

Iman

Ready

Every Day

" We never do Valentine's dinner, because everybody, they look. On Valentine's, imagine me and David going to a restaurant! Like, everybody's going to say, 'Did they talk? Did they hold hands?' Twenty years. We've been married twenty years! "

Iman

Restaurant

Hands

" At the end of the day, my legacy will not be modelling but my cosmetics line. "

" I'm against a signature look, as that can be very outdating. But having said that, I also know my best qualities, so I'm not going to foolhardily give away my power. "

" I vowed to myself when I got married that I would cook every night. I find it very therapeutic. "

" My mother was an activist; so was my father. They came from a generation of young Somalis who were actively involved in getting independence for Somalia in 1960. "

" The people who are the most successful in life are not stopped by fear. "

" I was studying political science; I was adamant that I was going to follow in my father's footsteps. "

" I would rather Google other people than Google myself. "

" On my 50th birthday in 2005, my discount-wielding AARP card came in the mail. I hurled it in the trash, put on something fabulous, and had a decadent meal. Just the thought of putting it in my wallet felt like a concession. "

" I wasn't a major in political science for nothing, so I understood the politics of beauty and the politics of race when it comes to the fashion industry. "

" I thought at 46 years old, I've been removed from the fashion industry for 10 years. I couldn't possibly write a model's book. That's for a 20-year-old. But I could say what I want to say without chastising the industry. "

" I can enjoy what I'm engaged in and be fully present rather than planning my answers to questions while someone else is speaking or thinking about my next appointment while my current engagement is still in in progress. "

" I am the face of a refugee. I was once a refugee. I was with my family in exile. "

" When my daughter Zulekha was born, I was at the pinnacle of my working life as a model, and I pulled myself in two trying to cope with being both a mother and a career girl. "

" I am so far more secure and more grounded and more know who I am than when I was in my 20s. "

Iman

Far

Grounded

" I arrive in New York on October 15, 1975. On my own, by the way. "

" That is something that my mother instilled in me at a very young age - to know my self-worth. And I have had times again and again in the fashion industry where all of that was tested and I rose to the occasion because I was told that I am worthy and I should be able to walk away from something that is not worthy of me. "

" I suffer from low self-esteem. I had horrible self-esteem growing up. You really have to save yourself because the critic within you will eat you up. It's not the outside world - it's your interior life, that critic within you, that you have to silence. "

" I would go to cosmetics counters and buy two or three foundations and powders, and then go home and mix them before I came up with something suitable for my undertones. "

Iman

Home

Before

" The women I gravitate to are the ones who defy convention and reinvent themselves - hence, they reinvent the world around them. "

" I tell all my younger friends, 'Don't be afraid of change. That is when you truly see what your destiny is.' "

" You want a career? Do that first. You don't want to have kids? Then don't. You don't want to get married? Then don't. But once you do something, you've got to know that there is compromise. "

" I was under 18, and to leave Kenya to come to the United States, to get a passport, you had to be 18. So I lied and said I was 19 to get the passport, because otherwise, I had to have permission from my parents, and my parents would never have let me come. "

Iman

Said

Leave

" I beg you, don't use the verb, 'discover', I hate it. What does it mean, that I didn't exist before? "

" I've always said if what I'm going to create doesn't look good on everybody, I'm not going to do it. "

" On a Friday night in 1983, I was in a taxi in New York riding home from dinner with friends. A drunk driver ran a red light and hit the cab, and I was thrown toward the glass partition. I tried to duck, but my face hit the glass, and the impact fractured my cheekbone, my eye socket, my collarbone and several ribs. "