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" Nine out of nine architects start with a sketch, and then they say, 'What should we make it out of?' I start from the bottom up - what should it be made out of - and then I worry about what should it look like. The material, the color of the material, the way it feels, and the way you respond to it is every bit as valid as the form or the shape. "

Peter Marino

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You

" People in Shanghai make a lot more money than the farmers in the rice paddies. The rice-paddy farmers are not buying Louis Vuitton bags, but the upwardly mobile ones in Shanghai, who are all working in Wall Street-type firms, are infinitely better-dressed than people in the West. Their women take this fashion thing seriously. "

" We have a thousand hydrangea plants bordering the house, and they were all supposed to be pink, but a handful of them keep turning purple. "

" I have this 'Alice in Wonderland' idea in my head that a garden should be a place of wonderment. "

" I collect art like other people eat pizza. I can't get enough of it. I need a constant source of inspiration. "

" I got into architecture via fine arts, and I was a sculptor myself, and I have always involved artists in my projects. When I say 'involved,' I mean I always bring artists in at the beginning projects before they're built and say, 'Will you do a room? Will you do a sculpture floating in mid-air? Will you make a chimney? Will you do something?' "

" One of my first fashion clients was Calvin Klein. We did his first freestanding stores. He was very exact and precise. But talk about high-fashion people who brand themselves! "

" Design-wise, I look at everything. If I don't personally design it, I'll review it. I'm kind of creative director of the firm. "

" It's a good marriage because each of us is what we are, allows the other one to be themselves, and appreciates each other for the right reason. You know, it's rare that you'll find two people who don't try to change the other person and let everyone be what they are. "

" When I opened Chanel in London, they were happy. People would go, 'Oh, I just came in to see it. It's so beautiful.' And you leave with a positive attitude toward the brand. Now, you don't really get that online. You don't go, like, 'Wow.' "

" What frustrates me is florists who put everything at the same size on the table. I like it when there's mountains and valleys. "

" I loathe when architects only analyze architecture in intellectual, nonvisual ways. I really love direct response, and that's very pop. I don't want to discuss abstract transparencies with a bunch of kooks. "

" If something's a high-margin product, I understand its importance to the store. "

" Architects have big egos. We like to think we're creating the pyramids and they're going to be around for thousands of years. And it's a joke because they're not even going to last our lifetime. I built a home for umpteen gazillion dollars on a gorgeous piece of property in Palm Beach, and 11 years later somebody else bought it and knocked it down. "

" Universal human characteristics are a good base for great art. "

" In 1991, if someone came in with a $1 million budget for a boutique, I would have fainted. Nobody spent even half that. But now, the bar has risen very high. "

" Motorcycle garb is the way I looked to Warhol. Then came the Armani suits. "

" My name is on the door, and I care very much about the design that gets put out. I'm sorry, but it has to be my way. You learn that by working for people like I. M. Pei. You think he isn't a design tyrant? Is Calvin Klein a tyrant? When it came to his dresses, he had to be. "

" If you want to come up with a really original design idea, and you want to capture a whole new design direction, perhaps the best way to arrive at that is not by acting and thinking and doing like everybody else. That's all. "

" Koishikawa Korakuen Garden - one of Tokyo's oldest Japanese gardens, and one of the best spots for viewing the cherry blossoms. "

" I always look for inspiration, and the creativity of artists is an essential element to my life, my work, and my happiness. "

" I want to be the first person to animate bags - everything done for handbags bores me to tears - I want to make it more playful. "

Peter Marino

Person

Want

" I am very happy working for my European brands. My legacy isn't going to be a museum. Yet I would be very good at it. It's so painful. It's like everything - the same old guys - Herzog & de Meuron, Frank Gehry, Renzo Piano - they don't pick original people. "

" My parents spent a lot of money so I wouldn't sound like I came from Queens. I went to speech class. "

" The French use gardens to show grandeur and the English to show how things have endured for hundreds of years, but for me, they're all about fantasy. "

Peter Marino

How

Fantasy

" I do really modern with materials that are so luxurious that they're, like, baroque. "

Peter Marino

Luxurious

Baroque

" That was really the Fifties for me - that whole spirit of flicking the paint on the canvas. "

Peter Marino

Fifties

Spirit

" If I need a pair of tennis shorts, I'll buy them online. I don't really care. Not going to go and try on a pair and see how my bum looks. Who cares? But for things that you care about - I mean, a jacket and a pair of trousers, you've got to try them on. "

" I'm really a fighter against modernism equaling brutalism. "

" The Peninsula - it's a combination of great service and good design. "