Quotes from Prabal Gurung

I know what it's like to turn the page of a magazine and not see anyone like you. It takes a lot, a lot, a lot of talking to yourself to confirm your self-worth.

Fashion has a huge responsibility - in what we show on the runway, what we do in editorial, who we dress - to make sure it represents differences. If we don't, we're giving in to the discrimination.

All designers have a platform, an audience. Whether it's one or a million, it doesn't matter.

Girls who wear certain kind of dresses, who show certain areas of the body, are not going to like my clothes. You can't please everyone.

I think I'm just really in love with women, and I love to see them looking incredibly, truly beautiful. I think every time a woman wears one of my dresses, you know, in a matter of speaking, I'm having a little love affair with her!

The woman I design for is very curious. She loves fashion, but she also is passionate about what is happening around the world.

You want to question what is important and why is it important. I don't have all the answers, but I'm very curious to know and learn.

I was definitely considered different growing up. I learned that being me was all right because my family celebrated those differences.

I went home and went to Mustang, in the mountains between Nepal and China, and was so inspired by the landscape and the rich culture and heritage. I loved the textures, the draping, the palette. Everything was so beautiful. This little kingdom wasn't open to the world until 1991.

The punk era, at its best, celebrated questioning the norm and the promotion of originality. Both concepts have always resonated with me.

For my first big Fashion Week event, the factory wouldn't give me my clothes because I didn't have the $25,000 it cost to make them.

I came from Bill Blass, where it was a well-oiled machine and if I said I needed a fabric, it was done. Now, I have to budget everything. I have to take on the role not just as a designer but a business. But I'm a glass half-full kind of guy.

When I came to America, there were two kinds of women: women who looked serious and who didn't wear color and print, and women who looked girly and feminine and like second wives.

It saddens me to see the reality-television shows that are getting so much fanfare that are a celebration of stupidity and the degradation of women. And those women are consistently wearing too short, too tight dresses. I hope the trend of aging gracefully returns.

I tweet myself and do all the Facebook updates. It started off with me wondering whether I was showing off and I was very careful about what I wrote.

The first time I saw my look on a real person was in Paris, and I felt a little shock, a little thrill that went through my body. And that thrill never goes away - never.

I just really enjoy life.

I have a 6-year-old niece who doesn't look like the majority of girls on the covers of magazines. I hope that by the time she's 16, the world will have changed.

I grew up with a single mother who brought us up. I always look back at my career, and everything that has happened to me is because of the support of women. My mother, my sister, Michelle Obama, Kate Middleton - all these women have believed in my designs and worn them and given me a platform to increase my visibility.

There's such a feeling of satisfaction when something you imagined turned into something real.

I would tell any aspiring designer to take the time to experience everything they can to really get a feel for what direction they want to go in. And most importantly, let your passion and your gut lead you.

Fashion has always had the ability to affect lives, to touch people. But for the longest period of time, we've said, 'Oh, we're just pages of a magazine; that's what we all look at.' It's more than that.

A lot of people have an opinion. If you listen to them too much, your work will get influenced, and you make no one happy.

I've always found it interesting when I look at a woman, and she's beautiful and everything, but there's an inner strength.