Tom Ford Quotes

That is my reality. It's that important to nurture and foster my own creativity. There are plenty of birthday parties I haven't been able to go to, weddings I haven't been able to go to because I've been working. Those are things that have not been easy to give up, but at the same time, it is my reality. It's my responsibility.

Chess is my life, but my life is not chess.

I find people interesting. People trying hard are interesting. People with a passion are interesting - whether it's old cars or taxidermy or knitting.

The important thing about a sport is the people who devote their lives to it.

My family comes first. Maybe that's what makes me different from other guys.

You can have either the Resurrection or you can have Liberace. But you can't have both.

I'm irresponsible to my career in order to paint. Because painting is obsessive. I forget to eat. I forget to sleep.

It's a hard job. It means giving up some things, but on the other hand they keep saying you can have it all. You can't really have it all so easy. You can do a little of this and little of that.

I think for anyone who follows the 'artistic life,' a certain amount of selfishness and self-involvement is part of the package. You're probably already disregarding a certain material life you could have.

All I do is play music and golf - which one do you want me to give up?

My own life is wonderful, but if I had to live the life of someone else, I'd gladly choose that of Julia Child or Dr. Seuss: two outrageously original people, each of whom fashioned an idiosyncratic wisdom, passion for life, and sense of humor into an art form that anyone and everyone could savor.

I would let climbing slide away if I had to maintain my relationship with my family. Because it really is the big adventure.

I love strange choices. I'm always interested in people who depart from what is expected of them and go into new territory.

Do whatever you do intensely. The artist is the man who leaves the crowd and goes pioneering. With him there is an idea which is his life.

When everyone starts sounding the same, that's when you know the words and phrases have become clichés. Instead of speaking in clichés, I encourage people just to be themselves, let their passion burn brightly, and go work on things they love spending their time on.

Talented people have to do what they do. Someone can criticize but you do what you do.

I talk specifically to the lifestyle and those who can relate to it. And I feel like, where the creativity comes in, is where you draw the parallels that everybody can relate to. That's where it's creative for me. I feel like it works best that way.

Finding one important thing in your life doesn’t mean you have to give up all the other important things.

Whenever you do any one thing intensely over a period of time you have to give up other lives you could be living. You have to have a real single-minded kind of tunnel vision if you want to get anything significant accomplished. Especially if the desire is not to be a businessman, but to be a creative person.

Creative work is incredibly difficult, and that is where the tests lie. Ordinary professionalism and twenty years' experience can accomplish a lot, but it can't access the hidden places. That still needs what it always needs - a condition of complete simplicity, costing not less than everything.

Judge your success by what you had to give up to get it.

I have created a life by stepping out of the box of people's limitations. I call it zigging when others are zagging.

Everything goes by the board: honor, pride, decency, security, happiness, all, to get the book written.

The most creative people have learned to tolerate the slight discomfort of indecision for much longer and so, just because they put in more pondering time, their solutions are more creative.

I'll never stop working. I want to die in the saddle. A day is wasted for me if I haven't done something even mildly creative.