"My first booker in Paris, at the very, very very beginning of my career, died of AIDS. It was the first time I had heard about AIDS. Everyone was still quite uncertain about what it was. It was still new. I remember visiting him up until his final days. I've had friends pass away from it, and friends of friends and colleagues, so I've been touched persoanlly and professionally. But really, I'm doing my part because I think it's a global issue. I think everybody has to do something. There is nothing beautiful about AIDS. We still live in a world where the stigma surrounding AIDS is truly ugly. I hope to make a difference."
JOURNALIST:You're a bit of a chameleon. What's your favorite look?
LINDA EVANGELISTA: The current one is always the best!
(I-D, UK 1993)
JOURNALIST: Do tones of Hollywood scripts thunk daily on to your doormat?
LINDA EVANGELISTA: I've had lots of offers, but nothing's really grabbed me. It's a mistake to think a model can be an actress, because the two professions don't have much in common. I could change my mind, if I was offered something that appealed to me.
JOURNALIST:Like what?
LINDA EVANGELISTA: An offer from Pedro Almodovar. Please print that very big so he'll see it.
(Options, UK, August 1993)
Like the make-up artist, Linda too considers the effect of the overhead daylight in the skylit hall. "It'll cast shadows under my eyes. I'll have to walk with my chin up all the way round and people will say: "She's got that nasty-smell-under-her nose look."
(Vogue UK, 1994)
"Nobody dresses well anymore. It's all too casual and too little effort. Except for Singapore Airlines. I love that uniform."
(The new Observer, UK 2005)
"I don't know what to say about that comment any more. I thought it would go away, but it hasn't. I saw a movie, Mr and Mrs Smith, and there's a line in it where Brad Pitt says he won't get out of bed for less than half a million dollars. That's my line! Only now it's a half a million and a man saying it!"
(Evening Standard, UK, 2005)
"I do always speak up. When I say to a make-up artist, "I think I should fix my lip", or to an editor, "this dress should be pinned here", I'm not insulting them - it's just that after all these years, I can feel when it's wrong. I always give an opinion. Always. I'm not always right of course, but at least I've tried."
(Vogue UK, 1992)
"I'm certainly thinking of plastic surgery. I've already been botoxed, like many of the models. And I'm happy to admit it. If you don't tell, how do other women feel they have a chance when they see the pictures? Models are not superhuman. We grow old. I really want to grow old and I don't believe that age is ugly."
"I've learned to live in the moment, something I never used to do. I was always regretting the past, worrying about the future driven to go on working, taking every job. I took every job they threw at me because I thought this was going to be the last year. I grew up the day I gave up modeling (in 1998). I realized that what I wanted was a normal life and a routine. But then, after all the hard work and pressure -- listen, I used to take Concorde like people take the bus - I became really idle, and that didn't work for me, either."
"One of the reasons I wanted to come back is I got sick of seeing really ugly pictures of myself in the tabloids. I got to the point where I'd look in the mirror and say, Where'd she go? Because she's still in there.' I knew she was still in there (she laughs) and it didn't take much to get her out."
"I was a hoarder, and I got rid of everything. Now nothing comes in my home unless it has a purpose. And decor is not a purpose. Home is New York apartment with a table, a bed and sofas. That's it. Everything else is gone."
"All I want to do is model. The reason I'm coming back is for the same reasons that I became a model initially. It's about the clothes and the creation of great pictures. I thought I was old and that I earned my retirement, and enough! It's not enough. I want more. And I'm lucky that I still have that option."
"I was having panic attacks. I didn't want to live that way anymore. I was in love and I wanted it to work. I was tired of travelling, tired of the whole scene, just tired. I sat around. I was lazy. I wanted a routine, and I wanted to wake up in the same bed every day, and I got my wish."
"The miscarriage was a big part of my absence. That contributed to my further laziness and depression. It was the hardest thing I ever had to go through. And I'm not over it, and I never will be. Everyone says, 'After you fall off a horse, get back up on it again,' but I didn't get back up on the horse. I didn't have the courage. I just think the further along in the term, the harder it is. You can't measure that kind of pain. I accept it, and I understand it; it's just hard. But life goes on. At least I'm optimistic."
