Iman Quotes

You want a career? Do that first. You don't want to have kids? Then don't. You don't want to get married? Then don't. But once you do something, you've got to know that there is compromise.

I believe in glamour. I am in favor of a little vanity. I don't rely on just my genes.

I've always said if what I'm going to create doesn't look good on everybody, I'm not going to do it.

I did not want to get involved with a rock star. No way. It is not a sane thing to do.

I was not considered beautiful at all. Really. And this is what all models say. But I'm still not considered that beautiful in my country. I don't know the beauty ideal where I come from - but it's not me.

I can enjoy what I'm engaged in and be fully present rather than planning my answers to questions while someone else is speaking or thinking about my next appointment while my current engagement is still in in progress.

People called me 'Iman the black model'. In my country, we're all black, so nobody called somebody else black. It was foreign to my ears.

We never do Valentine's dinner, because everybody, they look. On Valentine's, imagine me and David going to a restaurant! Like, everybody's going to say, 'Did they talk? Did they hold hands?' Twenty years. We've been married twenty years!

We are very private, so we decided from early on that we will keep the press and editors and everybody out of our house.

Mrs. Obama is not a great beauty. But she is so interesting-looking - so bright. That will always take you farther.

Eliminating the things you love is not wellness. Wellness feeds your soul and makes you feel good.

I wanted a bronzer so I could look like I just came from Ibiza everyday.

The people who are the most successful in life are not stopped by fear.

When everyone is telling you, 'You're so beautiful, there's nobody like you,' you begin to think it's true. But of course there is nobody like you.

I didn't start exercising until the end of my modeling career. When you're young, you eat and drink what you want and stay up all night and still look good.

My ritual is cooking. I find it therapeutic. It comes naturally to me. I can read a recipe and won't have to look at it again.

That is something that my mother instilled in me at a very young age - to know my self-worth. And I have had times again and again in the fashion industry where all of that was tested and I rose to the occasion because I was told that I am worthy and I should be able to walk away from something that is not worthy of me.

I'll be truly happy when we're not counting the number of ethnically diverse models on a fashion runway or campaign, when having a representation of the entire human race is the norm and not an exception.

Granted, I've changed internally as I've gotten older - I take it easy, I know when to stop and take care of myself, I laugh much more and with my belly and soul - but this comes from the confidence and acceptance that comes with maturity.

I like to get up around 5:30 or six - that's my favorite time of day. My family is still asleep, and the office is still closed, so I can start my day slowly.

I was never a practicing Muslim. But I do consider myself a Muslim.

When my daughter Zulekha was born, I was at the pinnacle of my working life as a model, and I pulled myself in two trying to cope with being both a mother and a career girl.

When I started modeling, they tried to pay black models less than they paid Caucasian models. I turned down those jobs because I knew what I was worth.

I was raised to treat my body as a temple, but even as a little girl, I had a major issue with self-esteem. I thought there was something wrong with the temple.

My father ... gave me a positive connection with men because he is a gentleman.

I speak five languages besides mine. I went to school in Egypt because girls weren't allowed to go to school in Saudi Arabia. It's very restricting, especially for girls; we're not allowed to go anywhere.

Life is too short not to have pasta, steak, and butter.

The truth was I felt ugly growing up. I only really started feeling comfortable in myself when I was 40.

in a world full of trends, i want to remain a classic

At the end of the day, a 34B doesn't give you self-esteem.

The day you settle for less is the day you will get less.

I don't love eating meat. I really only like chicken and fish.

There are highlights when you become irreplaceable as a model, like when you become a muse to designers. They look at you differently; you're not a coat hanger for hire.

On my 50th birthday in 2005, my discount-wielding AARP card came in the mail. I hurled it in the trash, put on something fabulous, and had a decadent meal. Just the thought of putting it in my wallet felt like a concession.

I have been a muse to Mr. Saint-Laurent, Valentino, Calvin Klein, Donna Karan, Versace.

I believe the universe has great plans for us. When you are young, you don't learn that.

I have a 15-year-old daughter who thinks that I always had this self confidence that I have now at the age of 60. And I always tell her that what she is going through - the low self-esteem as a teenager - that is a right of passage.

I beg you, don't use the verb, 'discover', I hate it. What does it mean, that I didn't exist before?

I would rather Google other people than Google myself.

We never wore burkas because Somalis had our own culture.

The difference between rearing a child in your 20s and one in your 50s is one of patience.

As I always said: I fell in with David Jones. I did not fall in love with David Bowie.

Modeling gave me so many experiences, like traveling and being exposed to global cultures, but the most valuable lesson has been working with designers who truly are visionaries in their field.

I had never seen 'Vogue.' I didn't read fashion magazines, I read 'Time' and 'Newsweek.'

There is no age better than another. The commitment to give of yourself and the knowledge that the time is right are what's important.

There is a lot of noise out there. I don't want to follow the trend - I want to create the trend.

I tell all my younger friends, 'Don't be afraid of change. That is when you truly see what your destiny is.'

I was studying political science; I was adamant that I was going to follow in my father's footsteps.

We all want what every girl wants: to look fabulous while we're out there ruling the world.

People get numbed when they see picture after picture, year in and year out, of people starving.

I was born in Somalia, which is in East Africa. My parents started with nothing: poor, poor, poor. They eloped, which was unheard of in my country, when my father was 17 and my mother was 14.

Nobody has ever said to me that I was pretty, 'til I met Peter Beard.

We all have friends and loved ones who say 60's the new 30. No. Sixty's the new 60.

Bowie is just a persona. He's a singer, an entertainer. David Jones is a man I met.

One afternoon, on my way to the campus - I was majoring in political science at Nairobi University - a photographer by the name of Peter Beard stopped me in the street and asked me if I'd ever been photographed.

I'm always criticised by other Somalis and Muslims for what I'm doing as a model and married to a white man and all that.

I wasn't a major in political science for nothing, so I understood the politics of beauty and the politics of race when it comes to the fashion industry.

If I feel frustrated in a situation, I take a deep breath and walk away.

Intelligence is sexy. Don't play dumb, especially young girls. Don't play dumb. And let people see that you are intelligent.

I'm a very political person, and I think things through clearly, even when I was 18 years old.

I was admittedly comfortable with Iman Cosmetics being identified as a beauty brand that filled the gap for black women because it was deeply personal for me.

On a Friday night in 1983, I was in a taxi in New York riding home from dinner with friends. A drunk driver ran a red light and hit the cab, and I was thrown toward the glass partition. I tried to duck, but my face hit the glass, and the impact fractured my cheekbone, my eye socket, my collarbone and several ribs.