I constantly work at maintaining balance. For me, my family comes first. If my family is taken care of, then everything else usually falls into place.
I was born in Westchester, NY. I grew up around the Rye Brook area, and then I moved to White Plains with my family.
People talk about me as if I am the sole inheritor of the Guinness family fortune and worth masses, but I have hundreds of cousins.
They've really got to recognize that all of us bring some of our family issues to work and our work home.
I come from a food family, so you would think that I would be great at making baked beans or something, but I'm not.
I don't think at that time I realized how important it was and how important it was for me to be here and carry on that legacy in our family of being a photographer.
Although I do not have a family, I have eyes, ears and imagination, and know, as most people know, that the importance of one's children is paramount.
We really were a very musical family. Father managed to buy us a small pump organ, and I just loved this instrument.
I grew up in a family where the women were just nuts. They didn't stand around in cardigans making polite conversation while they chopped tomatoes.
My dream, maybe because of my family, of course, was to be a painter. I chose in one moment the direction of textiles; from textiles I went to fashion.
Not what you would call a musical family, but my father used to play saxophone, and I discovered many genres of music when I was a child.
After so many changes, I realized I'd better cling to my own family and to what I've got right here.
I was so enamored with the idea of being in show business so everything was bright to me. I mean, I didn't think of it as being tough and things like that.
The business today is completely different and it's very producer driven, so that a songwriter needs to have producing chops, be a singer/songwriter, or find a singer to develop.
I'm very driven, and I always have been. So I'd like to release a successful album, continue in musical theatre, and be more involved in business.
You have to keep the business side together as well as the creative side. We have constantly surprised people and stayed with bands until they have grown on people.
I'll never forget that show season. It was completely mad. I was staying between Christy and Naomi's rooms and it was all limos and the Ritz Hotel and all that kind of business.
I think you need a really strong businessperson running the state, a person who's used to turning negatives into positives, which is what happens in business.
If you are a musician and you don't show any interest on the business level then you are actually vulnerable and people will rip you off. They will sweet talk you into anything.
I think the moment that I'm very proud of is building a business without using animals. And, hopefully, changing people's perception of how you can do luxury fashion.
It's not realistic to live in the country at this stage. I've got a business in London. I beat myself up about it all the time.
