Zitat des Tages von Nicholas Haslam:
Most English houses, grand or small, nestle in an intimate pastoral setting.
Vanity is not having facelifts if you're ugly. Those people who say: 'Oh, I'd never dream of having anything done!' That's rude. It's rude, to other people, to not try and look your best; to not try and stir things up, to not reinvent... or just invent... it's one's duty to not get stuffy.
It's terribly easy to be well dressed. It's much more difficult to be badly dressed.
I don't really do a big Saturday supper. I prefer entertaining in the daytime.
I wanted to be grown up the minute I could.
You can learn the subtle language of interior style, but many people simply buy it. If you put yourself in the hands of someone who knows what they are doing, you can be confident it will look good.
I had a face-lift, and I would have another if I needed one. It definitely changed my life. I'm not vain. In fact I don't like looking at myself. The face-lift was just about looking rested.
People think that buying something for their home which is up-to-date is chic, but often it's a cliche. I call people who simply give clients the current 'thing' stylists not decorators.
New York in the '60s was amazing.
The English truly understand the dynamic between buildings and land.
I tend to look out for things with a resonance to my youth - artists or objects that seemed romantic all those years ago. I never buy anything purely for its value. I like possessions that smile back at me.
Interior decoration partly thrives on being social.
I rent a Jacobean-fronted hunting lodge in Hampshire from the National Trust and like to go there as much as possible. I've grown to love it so much, especially when writing my memoirs there at weekends.
Sunday afternoon is for papers and writing.
It's the fashion, I tell you: big, tall women going out with tiny, tiny men.
I don't feel I have to charm somebody, I feel I want to know them; it's a different thing.