The 12 Best Quotes From The Independent's Interview with Karl Lagerfeld

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The Independent's Susannah Frankel recently met up with "the most powerful man in fashion," Karl Lagerfeld, to interview him about what it's like to be the most powerful man in fashion. In the discussion, Lagerfeld touches on everything from iPad tutorials to Royal Wedding commentary to Lady Gaga and Friedrich Nietzsche (not in the same context). We've compiled 12 of our favorite funny, informative, and essentially Karl quotes for your reading pleasure.

1. Explaining his five residences: "I have a guest house because I don't want people in my home."

2. On his stern,multi-hyphenate misconception: "I just do it, you see. Doing for doing. There are no real rules, so don't ask me how. In fact, I'm not even a serious person."

3. On his transformative designing ability: "I have no personality, or I have three, depending on how you look at it."

4. On Lady Gaga: "She's an Upper West Side girl with real learning. She's not just an idiot from nowhere...There are so many third-rate people now who are more famous than people who should be famous, but sometimes people who could or should be famous are very boring, too."

5. On his effortless dieting skills: "I only like what I'm allowed to like. I'm beyond temptation. There is no weakness. When I see tons of food in the studio, for us and for everybody, for me it's as if this stuff was made out of plastic?I'm like the animals in the forest. They don't touch what they cannot eat. "

6. On adolescence: "My problem as a child was that I was bored to death, because I wanted to be a grown-up person. My childhood was endless – from eight to 18 felt like hundreds of years."

7. On his honest commentary of the Royal Wedding: "When [women] go into bright colours, strange hats, bad proportions, short skirts, big legs and all that, then it's more difficult [than for men]."

8. Explaining his upcoming Nietszche publication: "I'm publishing 12 volumes because somebody sent me them. But he's not my favourite. My favourite is Spinoza."

9. His words of wisdom: "Stuff your brain. Stuff your brain with knowledge. I want to know everything. I want to see everything. "

10. On the difficulties of everyone knowing who you are: "It's just like this: one day, I want to go out without a bodyguard to my framer which is not far from my studio, so I put on a bonnet and on the corner of my street this person says to me, in French [he adopts the voice of a taunting schoolgirl]: 'Alors, on se déguise?'. Even my voice is easy to recognise. When someone calls and they've made a wrong number they recognise the voice. This happens very often. They say: 'You have a voice like Mr Lagerfeld'."

11. Final comments on his profession: "Please don't say I work hard. Nobody is forced to do this job and if they don't like it, they should do another one."

12. What he does: "I like nothing better than concrete reality. I'm a very down-to-earth person, but it is my job to make that earth more pleasant."
· Being Karl Lagerfeld: What's it like being the most powerful man in fashion? [The Independent]
· All Karl Lagerfeld Coverage [Racked]