Quotes from Justine Picardie

People are often dismissive of librarians and libraries - as if the words are synonymous with boredom or timidity. But isn't that where the best stories are kept? Hidden away on the library bookshelves, lost and forgotten, waiting, waiting, until someone like me comes along, and wants to borrow them?

Saint Laurent has excellent taste. The more he copies me, the better taste he displays. - Coco Chanel

But I've wept so much,' she said to Delay. 'Now I don't cry any more. When you don't cry it's because you no longer believe in happiness.

Smiling is not a duty, but a freedom. It's up to you now; you are liberated from the expectations and conformities of youth.

And yes, I confess, when I looked at him, I thought of Heathcliff and Mr Rochester and Maxim de Winter... and how could I not, when I had been waiting for them to step out of the pages of the books I loved; when I knew them so well, read them inside out and into myself?

he said it felt like walking into another century, being there, looking up at the mullion windows, all darkened now, and the castellated towers that rose up out of the clutch of the ivy. "And you," he said, "you look like the heroine of a nineteenth-century novel, with your beautifully serious face and your grave, grey eyes. So do you have a suitably romantic story to tell?

As if you can measure literary excellence with precise instruments; as if there were a science of writing, governed by equations that reveal immutable truths.

she appears to be wearing her clothes simply to get on with life, rather than as a means to display her brother's consummate artistry.

But I have come to believe that Catherine was possessed of a rare grace and inner strength that would have protected her from the jostling fashion crowd, with their sharp

She loved her brother, and applauded his success, but she did not need the protection or disguise of

For four years, we worked, we searched, like alchemists in pursuit of the philosopher's stone. And then Miss Dior was born … Because, you see, for a perfume to 'hold', it must first be held for a long time in the hearts of those who created it. CHRISTIAN DIOR

When a man wants to send you some flowers, always say to him: "My florist is Cartier".

Instead, Catherine would become associated with the scent of Miss Dior, a perfume launched at the same time as the couture brand.

People are often dismissive of librarians and libraries....But isn't that where the best stories are kept? Hidden away on the library bookshelves, lost and forgotten, waiting, waiting, until someone like me comes along, and wants to borrow them.

Monsieur le president, I know what I'm saying. This affair cost people their lives, and now here they are, wrangling on behalf of these swine!' Catherine's outburst is at odds with her consistently measured demeanour during the course of the lengthy investigation

Le Monde gives her name, but refrains from saying that Catherine was related to Christian Dior. The New Yorker article does not refer to Catherine at all; neither does The Times of London, which described the scenes that had been portrayed in court as having taken on 'the aspect of an inferno such as that conjured up by Dante'.

On 25 November 1952, the annual celebration of St Catherine's Day was held at the house of Dior, as was customary in the couture business. The French tradition, which continues at Dior, is for unmarried women, known as Catherinettes, to wear fancy-dress hats. 'It is on St Catherine's day that you should really visit

There is nothing gayer than St Catherine's day. Each workroom has its own orchestra … there is one continuous ball.

The original 'May' gown is still kept in the Dior archives, and one of the knowledgeable curators suggests that it was inspired by Catherine, as another annual tribute to her love of flowers. But instead, I picture Catherine wearing a timeless grey dress at the Palais de Justice, making her case, standing her ground.

Wishing that a lucky star continues to shine for you and lights up this

beautiful house of "La Colle". With all the greatest tenderness, from your Catherine.

He portrayed Catherine as reserved, discreet, but possessed of strength and great dignity. She never spoke of the war, he said, nor of personal matters; as Laurent observed, 'the dictionary of Catherine Dior would not have many words within it.

She was not a woman given to physical expressions of affection – although he felt that she cared deeply about the people she loved. One of Laurent's lasting memories of Catherine is her scent, for she always wore Miss Dior – every day, whether she was working in the garden or harvesting her roses.

She was not a 'femme de fashion', but she was always elegant, said Laurent; always poised and well dressed.