Quotes from Kenneth Cole

Ads create dialogue, they create conversation, they create attention - that's our objective.

My first AIDS campaign was in 1985. There was this dark cloud, everybody was socially inspired - we hadn't seen social consciousness like that since the '60s - but most people were talking about hunger in Africa. Nobody was talking about this really ominous circumstance here in the U.S. because of this fear of stigma.

If every shoe store in America stops selling shoes, no one's going to go barefoot for 15, 20 years. No one needs shoes, for the most part. We have shoes; our problem is what to do with them.

I had left the runway because I had come to believe that it was questionably relevant and appropriate, because we were creating clothes that, to a large degree, never ended up making it to the stores. And the runway was being seen in markets where those clothes weren't available.

I am probably not the best creative person in the industry. I am probably not the best business person in the industry. But by nature being both, I think, is a strategic advantage.

Through my ongoing work as a UNAIDS Ambassador and with the End AIDS Coalition, I remain personally committed to aligning resources and galvanizing global action and working with amfAR to make AIDS history.

When you go public, the value equation of your company changes immediately. It is valued on anticipated earnings.

Everybody struggles to find a balance between their personal lives and their professional lives, and in some cases, their connection with the community. So what I've looked to do over the years is marry as many of those as I can.

I believe much of our lives is about guilt management.

Rest is overrated.

I find that people look to personalize their fashion alternatives.

If a brand is relevant anywhere, it's essentially viable everywhere.

Every day, we all make the critical decision of what we're going to wear, because many of the people we encounter in a day don't get to know anything more about us than how we present ourselves. That decision - totally on our own terms - is a powerful one.

I came to realize that the law is about a book of rules, and he who learns them best, and is the most creative in interpreting them, goes furthest.

I always believe that if you're looking at a magazine and I'm one of 40 ads, I - in effect - get one-fortieth of your attention. But if, when you close that magazine, you're still thinking about my ad, I've got a lot more than one-fortieth of your attention.