I do my job like I breathe — so if I can’t breathe I’m in trouble.
Interpretation
Passion for your work is as essential as breathing; without it, you face difficulties.
In this quote, Karl Lagerfeld emphasizes the importance of passion and dedication in one's work. He compares his commitment to his job to the very act of breathing, suggesting that just as breathing is vital for life, having a genuine love and enthusiasm for your work is crucial for personal and professional well-being. When work ceases to be enjoyable or fulfilling, it creates a sense of trouble or distress in one's life.
In practice
During a motivational speech about pursuing careers, this quote can inspire students to find work they love.
I believe in sketching because there is something very sensitive in sketching, you know, in sketches that you don't have out of a computer that looks the same like everybody even if, later on, the dresses are OK, but I like to sketch, and I like to see trails made after my sketches that look the same. It is you know, what I like.
I'm open to everything. When you start to criticize the times you live in, your time is over.
If I could be reincarnated as a fashion accessory, it would be a shopping bag.
Chic is a kind of mayonnaise, either it tastes, or it doesn't.
Why should I stop working? If I do, I'll die and it'll all be finished. 'm lucky to work in the most perfect of conditions. I can do what I want in all kinds of areas. The expenses are not expenses. I would be stupid to stop that. Work is making a living out of being bored.
Elegance has nothing to do with fashion.
We all make mistakes, but the people who thrive from their mistakes are the successful ones.
Great results, can be achieved with small forces.
You get whatever accomplishment you are willing to declare.
I used to feel unsafe right in the moment of an accomplishment - I felt the ground fall from under my feet because this could be the end. And even now, while everyone is celebrating, I'm on to the next thing. I don't want to get lost in this big cushion of success.
Remember, talent doesn't win championships, talent doesn't win games.
Writing careers are short. For every 100 writers, 99 never get published. Of those who do, only one in every hundred gets a career out of it, so I count myself as immensely privileged.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.