Top 60 Iman Quotes

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.

I don’t do anything by myself. I have a whole crew to get me ready every day.

I have no intention of ever writing beauty tips on how to make an African-American nose look slimmer or Asian eyes look bigger. That’s degrading. Asian eyes are what’s beautiful about you and what makes you different.

When I was in high school,we were, like, 4,000 or 5,000 students, and 50 girls – and I didn’t have a date for my prom. My father paid my cousin to take me.

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.

I was a very nerdy child. I never fit in, so I became laboriously studious.

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

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.

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.

Looking good is a commitment to yourself and to others. Wigs, killer heels, Pilates, even fillers – whatever works for you, honey.

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’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.

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

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

It’s really not a good idea to forecast or double guess the fates; you will always be fooled.

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

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

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

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.

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 would go to cosmetics counters and buy two or three foundations and powders, and then go home and mix them before I came up with something suitable for my undertones.

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

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

I have a certain manner of speech that is unique to me. I tried once to have my staff tweet for me, and it was a disaster! People knew right away that it wasn’t me.

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.

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

I suffer from low self-esteem. I had horrible self-esteem growing up. You really have to save yourself because the critic within you will eat you up. It’s not the outside world – it’s your interior life, that critic within you, that you have to silence.

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 am so far more secure and more grounded and more know who I am than when I was in my 20s.

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.

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.

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

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.

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 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 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 looks have changed. I have laugh lines – not wrinkles.

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

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.

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

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!

The women I gravitate to are the ones who defy convention and reinvent themselves – hence, they reinvent the world around them.

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

When I lived in Egypt, we always wore kaftans. I had cashmere kaftans from Halston. You put on a kaftan in your backyard, and it’s like you’re in Ibiza.

I vowed to myself when I got married that I would cook every night. I find it very therapeutic.

There are some people who have helped to advance me and other girls, but the fashion industry is always behind popular culture. They think they understand the zeitgeist. They don’t know anything about the zeitgeist.

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

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

At the end of the day, my legacy will not be modelling but my cosmetics line.

Italian was my first foreign language. I speak it better than English.

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

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.

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.

Beauty is being comfortable and confident in your own skin.

After the bones mended, my left eye was smaller than my right, and my eyebrow never grew back. But you know what? Big deal. I think I became beautiful after the accident. I became kinder, more aware. I gained respect for other people.

I would rather Google other people than Google myself.

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.

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.