Nicholas Haslam Quotes

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.

MY DOCTOR phoned and said you don't deserve this news, but your lungs are crystal clear'.

You can learn the subtle language of interior style, but many people simply buy it. If you put yourself in the hands of someone who knows what they are doing, you can be confident it will look good.

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

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'm afraid of people, in a way.

New York in the '60s was amazing.

I go to Topman at lunchtime and stare at these beautiful, beautiful people who work there and who are so well-dressed. And I think: 'Oh! I want to look like that! They're amazing, how well-dressed they are!'

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 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.

I could care less if it's Mick Jagger or the man on the street. I just like interesting people, and I happen to know a lot of stars.

I wanted to be grown up the minute I could.

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.

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.

I have a natural curiosity for people.

It's the fashion, I tell you: big, tall women going out with tiny, tiny men.

I'm the male Kate Moss.

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've never paid attention to politics. I only have the vaguest notion of what the IRA is.

Interior decoration partly thrives on being social.

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.

Sunday afternoon is for papers and writing.

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

People think that buying something for their home which is up-to-date is chic, but often it's a cliche. I call people who simply give clients the current 'thing' stylists not decorators.