Top 30 Lapo Elkann Quotes

I love Italy and I say I am from Italy wherever I go.

My office in Milan is in an old factory. I have all my companies here, including Italia Independent and Independent Ideas.

I’ve lived in London, Paris, Rio de Janeiro, New York, and Turin. But New York is my favorite city. It has so much energy, so much toughness.

My company Independent Ideas worked with Gucci on a special edition Fiat 500.

London is like a girlfriend I loved, then really fell out with.

I’m inspired every day by the great captains of industry and enlightened entrepreneurs like my great-great-grandfather and founder of Fiat, Giovanni Agnelli, who personally knew all his workers and gave so much to this country, or Adriano Olivetti, unique and innovative in every way.

I’ve missed a lot of trains in my life, and another one always comes.

I drive girls crazy because I might call them 20 times in one day and then the next day not once.

I would say that Juventus is a myth not only in Italy, because it’s the most loved team in Italy, but also around the world. And it has been in my family since birth.

I don’t have an MBA, and I didn’t go to Yale. I’m not an academic person and wasn’t a good student. Instead, I’ve been taught by some of the most inspiring people in the world.

The Cinquecento was an engine of motivation at Fiat. It refurbished the image of the entire company. It’s a symbol for the company, but it’s more than that. It’s a global Italian symbol, as Mini is a global British symbol and the Beetle is a global German symbol.

You can learn from everyone, the president or the cleaner. You need teachers in life, but they’re not always school teachers or professors. You learn from ordinary people. You learn from travel, from just walking down the street.

Tiles, the best furniture, fabrics, bath fixtures, bronze – just leaf through any design magazine and you immediately understand they’re all ‘Made in Italy.’ We have the premier opera house in the world, La Scala, and behind the Nobel given to CERN is the research of many Italians.

I’d say Juventus has a story as legendary as the Yankees.

I do not follow the rules of fashion, and I don’t like to be considered a man of the world of fashion. I like to call it the ‘style industry’ because we try to work on taste.

I like my country, but I don’t think like an Italian. It’s a complex, complicated difficult country to make things happen in.

I love challenges, and I believe that the challenge of quality cinema should not be underestimated as an important part of the Italian cultural offer.

A pocket square must always – always – be white and a bit wild. If it is too prepared, it is tacky.

The value of ‘Made in Italy’ must necessarily be up-to-date. This is the philosophy that Italia Independent has embraced. We decided from the outset to do away with stereotypes and attune ourselves to the extreme pace, to the incessant metamorphoses of the globalized world.

I am in love with cars; I love anything that moves.

I love Winston Churchill; I think he had the grace of coming and the grace of leaving – when things were hard he was there, and when it was time to leave, he left.

I’ve learned that if one is arrogant and if something bad happens to him, people won’t want him to succeed. They will make more of an effort to bring him down.

Italy’s assets are her style, her beauty, her creativity, her passion, her energy, her technology; and these will be core brand values of all our cars. Fiat as a company has a long way to go and a steep road ahead.

If you stop for lunch elsewhere in the world, you tend to eat a sandwich, and a bad one. Italy is unique for the style of life. I think everyone envies it a bit.

I am Jewish, Italian, American, Catholic.

‘Made in Italy’ is from the tycoons of the ’80s, not me. It is people who represent an Italy which I don’t belong to and I don’t feel a part of.

Real luxury is customization.

I am an obsessive personality. And if you are an obsessive personality, you need to be aware of it and be able to drive it with success. There are moments in your life when you are driving it well, but you shift and you shift badly and you hurt yourself.

Tailor Made will help Ferrari’s clients tailor their cars in a very personal, specific way. It’s a bespoke service, like visiting Huntsman or Anderson & Sheppard or whoever your favourite Savile Row tailor is.

I have the Italian flag embroidered onto all my dress-shirt cuffs. I am very proud to be Italian.