Quotes from Issey Miyake

A great thing happening now in art is that artists are using the figure, the body, clothing, life.

Everything is an experiment.

I respect men and women who age and are proud and don't lose energy. I think fashion forgot those people.

If Mr. Obama could walk across the Peace Bridge in Hiroshima - whose balustrades were designed by the Japanese-American sculptor Isamu Noguchi as a reminder both of his ties to East and West and of what humans do to one another out of hatred - it would be both a real and a symbolic step toward creating a world that knows no fear of nuclear threat.

We can also cut by heat - heat punch. And we also can cut by cold - extreme cold. When you cut with heat, it makes a mark. With cold, no mark. It depends on the fabric.

Function alone does not make clothing appealing.

I like women who have their own idea of life: the woman who is assured, comfortable with herself, strong inside, proud of herself - not in an arrogant way, not showing off.

I did not want to be labelled 'the designer who survived the atomic bomb,' and therefore I have always avoided questions about Hiroshima.

I'd rather look to the future than to the past.

Paul Poiret did wonderful things because he was so influenced by motifs, but Vionnet really understood the kimono and took the geometric idea to construct her clothes - and that brought such freedom into European clothes in the 1920s.

Indian clothes are usually tight.

We have to keep a very tight check on quality.

Clothes should fit comfortably - not too tightly - so that you have space to move in and think freely.

A-POC unleashes the freedom of imagination. It's for people who are curious, who have inner energy - the energy of life and living.

From the beginning I thought about working with the body in movement, the space between the body and clothes. I wanted the clothes to move when people moved. The clothes are also for people to dance or laugh.

In Paris, we call the people who make clothing 'couturiers' - they develop new clothing items - but actually, the work of designing is to make something that works in real life.

To be honest, I think we should find first the possibility to make it. Research is first - if you're not interested, you never can find something. Many things happen from forgotten machines - ones that are no longer used.

In the past, art was admired and revered from afar. Today, there is more of an interactive relationship between the art and the person who admires it.

I believe that all forms of creativity are related.

I am most interested in people and the human form.

Clothing is the closest thing to all humans.

My generation in Japan lived in limbo. We dreamed between two worlds.

Many people will say, well, clothes should be worn; but I think people can look at them in public, like seeing a film. I think museum exhibitions are very important.

I was always interested in making clothing that is worn by people in the real world.