Quotes from Tim Gunn

I love cooking. I cook for myself every day. I like the ceremony of it. It takes me into a different zone. I make a lot of pasta. But cooking for a crowd of five or ten or, heaven forbid, twenty? No, thank you. I don't like feeling like a slave to the care and feeding of my guests.

Honestly—and maybe some of you can relate to this—I just can't stand the pressure of being responsible for hosting a memorable (and not in a bad way) evening. Martha Stewart, bless her heart, intimidates me. That level of entertaining is so over my head: What do you mean, you didn't dig up your own potatoes for this dish? You didn't make the doilies? The plates didn't just come out of a kiln? I love Martha, but it gets ridiculous.

To be a good houseguest, you should be as independent as possible. You should buy groceries or take your hosts out for dinner. Pick up after yourself. Pretend to have a good time even if you're not. Say, 'I'd like to make a dinner reservation tonight. What's your favorite restaurant?' Try not to break anything. Be quiet.

When someone dies, it's good to mail a note. Don't send an e-mail. You have to send a card. Everyone should have cards and stamps kicking around. I have some very simple stationery, just nice card stock with my name at the top. When the news is happy, e-mail is fine. You can e-mail congratulations about babies, weddings, anything. But when it's not? If it's a death or other bad news, you have to be more formal.

All over America, you see women in yoga pants and men in sweatpants, even when they are not on their way to or from a yoga class or softball field. When I fly, I see so many sweat suits – even pajamas – on my fellow travelers that it's as though the airplane were the sleeper car of a train bound for summer camp or a gym in the sky, not a public space for business people and vacationers.

I'll wear a graphic tee that says: 'AIDS Walk,' when I'm on the AIDS Walk. But generally graphic tees are for the young – and I'm not talking about the young at heart.

Every one of Dad's colleagues would eventually commit suicide, most by gunshot to the head, and every woman in their circle except for my mother would become a dysfunctional alcoholic. But in the fifties, they were all riding high.

The color, the shape, and the texture—none of it is accidental. Every item we wear has a glorious (or sometimes not so glorious) history, and that history extends back years—centuries, even—before Oscar de la Renta's 2002 collection.

Life is not a solo act. It's a huge collaboration, and we all need to assemble around us the people who care about us and support us in times of strife.

I will always be there in the wings saying, 'You need to be good to people. You need to take your work seriously. You need to have integrity. You need to work with what you've got.

My manners also came from when I was in college and began participating in critiques. You have to speak with someone respectfully about their work and be honest and open, without hurting them.

Take the high road. No matter how much strife, and consternation, frustration and anger you might be confronted with - don't go to that level.

If I had to choose a single destination where I'd be held captive for the rest of my time in New York, I'd choose the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Make it work

I wouldn't know what to do on a date. I don't have the time. To make a relationship work, I'd have to give something up, and I'm not so sure I'm willing to do that.

I'm making the assumption that after Mrs. Obama leaves the White House that she will continue all of her work toward improving education in this nation and childhood health.

I don't believe in the scraping of stuff. Take the existing condition, offer up a diagnosis for what's wrong, and a prescription for making it work.

But I will add, there's one thing I will not do, ever: I will never talk to you about things you cannot change. It plants a negativity in the head of a designer or the student, and it's a distraction.

I learned quickly that if the student's perception is that you're not listening to them, and not understanding them, they discredit you.

Part of what was in the ether all around me growing up, until I was between 19 and 20, was a terrible, debilitating stutter. It was part of what made me very reclusive as a kid.

And Brooke Elliott is a great actress.

As I've matured, I've developed more confidence in pattern mixing and in having a slimmer fit and in taking some risks, and I enjoy it!

Whoever's designing for plus-size doesn't get it. The entire garment needs to be reconceived. You can't just take a size 8 and make it larger.

If you don't have experience sewing, start with that, because that will inform what you are able to design.