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The architect who first inspired me to follow this profession was Sir John Soane and his Regency home; well, his three homes, now a museum. The place is like an encyclopedia of paintings, antiquities, furniture, sculptures, and drawings.
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I like people. Listen, if you're a hotelier, if you're a creative person, and you're working with the things that I do, then you have to like people; otherwise, you simply can't get anywhere.
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It was the corner sweet-shop in Australia that first piqued my interest in interior design. I went into this space with a mixture of apprehension and excitement as a child. It was filled, floor to ceiling, with the most incredible rounded glass bowls filled to the brim with bonbons, buttons, and sweets.
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The champagne tastes the same if you're sitting bolt upright or sunk back into a sofa, so you might as well be upright, because you look better.
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I'd always been acutely sensitive to my surroundings - and aware that I could make them rather than just observe them. So I began by designing interiors for myself, for friends, for clients - I just felt that I'd discovered my element, and those who really looked at what I was doing liked it - and the rest followed.
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My father wanted a boy. I was supposed to be called Albert. That was probably the beginning of why things got so complicated, because I wasn't a boy.
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I really should have been a pharaoh - do you know that?
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I always like to read something romantic about the place I'm visiting.
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It is not me who is to be noticed. It is my work.
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If I set off to do something, why not do it properly? Otherwise, what's the point?
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Acting was fun for a while. I loved every minute of the really good things I did but probably wasn't as good as I should have been.
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'It can't be done' is not a phrase I recognize.