Quotes from Nicholas Haslam

Sometimes I think it would be nice to share everything I've got with somebody - and sometimes I think I'm very lucky to have the bathroom to myself. But I feel it would be nice to pass on my knowledge. Perhaps because I haven't got children - one wants to educate somebody.

Sunday afternoon is for papers and writing.

I think what I have is straightforwardness, unabashedness rather than charm.

I don't really do a big Saturday supper. I prefer entertaining in the daytime.

I have a natural curiosity for people.

I've always wanted to look different. I always think I've got this terrible figure. I'd like to be 3 inches taller.

I rent a Jacobean-fronted hunting lodge in Hampshire from the National Trust and like to go there as much as possible. I've grown to love it so much, especially when writing my memoirs there at weekends.

I'd like not to have these great puffy lobes on my ears - I'd like them to taper in.

Often it's a lack of time, not taste, that leads someone to hire a decorator. A good decorator/client relationship should be like a marriage. The time one puts in needs to be extensive. One needs to listen to them and understand what they like and how they live.

I don't feel I have to charm somebody, I feel I want to know them; it's a different thing.

I'm hopeless at telling lies. I can attempt strategic ones in order not to hurt people's feelings, but then I'll blow it 10 minutes later.

I believe every room speaks, tells you what to do to it. You have to listen to that.

It's terribly easy to be well dressed. It's much more difficult to be badly dressed.

I've always chased glamour.

I have a thirst - it's an awful word, but I'm thirsty for knowledge. I like knowing things, the odder the better, the more obtuse the better.

Interior decoration partly thrives on being social.

Most English houses, grand or small, nestle in an intimate pastoral setting.

I have always aspired towards other people's looks. When I was young, I loved teddy boys; I thought they looked wonderful. Then I was a cowboy in Arizona, really for the clothes! I had a ranch for five years; I had chaps made of bearskin.

I didn't want to look distinguished; I wanted to look fun, and also to fade into the street, into the King's Road. If I don't fade into a room at White's, that's fine. My father was chairman of Brooks' and the Beefsteak, and I was brought up in that life, and it bores me rigid.

I tend to look out for things with a resonance to my youth - artists or objects that seemed romantic all those years ago. I never buy anything purely for its value. I like possessions that smile back at me.

The English truly understand the dynamic between buildings and land.

I wanted to be grown up the minute I could.

I'm the male Kate Moss.

Vanity is not having facelifts if you're ugly. Those people who say: 'Oh, I'd never dream of having anything done!' That's rude. It's rude, to other people, to not try and look your best; to not try and stir things up, to not reinvent... or just invent... it's one's duty to not get stuffy.