What seems like a crazy idea today eventually grows. It's a 'with hindsight' thing. One day, someone will turn around and say, 'That was genius.'

You cannot underestimate the impact the Internet has had on British fashion.

The United Kingdom has traditionally been a very small market, and even though you had such a creative group of designers, they represented a risk to department stores.

It's a false assumption that people with a lot of money have a lot of free time to shop.

Pre-Internet, maybe it took six months for a fashion message to get across to a customer base. Fashion messages are now being sent out overnight, simultaneously, to every market in the world.

You can still wear trousers and show off your ankles - which are a nice body part on everyone.

Dear London, British fashion is a serious business. The British fashion industry is worth £21bn to the U.K. economy and employs 819,000 people across the country. With your help, we would like to see these numbers rise for the good of our industry, our talented designers, and our reputation worldwide.

A tendency to focus on art over business has meant that too many designers have failed to make the most of their critical acclaim.

People always say to me, 'You've really strived to redefine retail.' But the reality is, I wanted to redefine magazines.

I realised at a certain point that if I was going to have the kind of life that I fantasised about, I needed to get my act together.

I'm the laziest person I know.

The only time I can't sleep is on a plane, when I am literally keeping it in the air with my brain.

When I'm working, I have a hard time switching off, and when I'm not working, I have a hard time thinking of ever wanting to work again.

I see ghosts.

Contrary to popular belief, I'm not always trying to stand out.

100% of Net-a-porter customers have a man in their lives in some capacity, and 59% are married or living with a partner.

When I started Net-a-Porter, I knew nothing. And I was pregnant. Starting a new venture and being pregnant for the first time are pretty similar in many ways. If you knew what was going to happen to you, you wouldn't venture down that road.

I believe that all brands will become storytellers, editors and publishers, all stores will become magazines, and all media companies will become stores. There will be too many of all of them. The strongest ones, the ones who offer the best customer experience, will survive.

My experience is in merging extraordinary creative content with innovative global commerce.

Success begins at that magical moment when you declare to yourself, your friends, and the universe that you believe you can do something different.

Customers want new things, and the way that they get them isn't written in stone.

One of my goals is that, at a dinner party some time in the future, someone will say, 'Oh, my nephew is starting a ready-to-wear brand', and 20 people will turn around and say, 'Is he? Can we invest?' in the same way that, now, if you were to say, 'My nephew is starting a mobile app,' everyone would say, 'Oh, smashing! Can I invest?'

To be a designer today is to be an entrepreneur. Whether you're a two-man operation in Shoreditch or a 3,000-person, vertically integrated brand, you need to have the wherewithal to run your business through investment, considering everything from start-up funds to your exit plan or what it takes to go public.

We're seeing a crazy appetite for people to acquire and invest in British businesses.

You can no longer just have a magazine that shows you this glossy impervious image of women - in the studio, artificial, wearing a push-up bra.

I cry at anything remotely touching - smile at me warmly and I'm off... television also does it, everything from 'X-Factor' to cereal commercials. I cry when I am tired. I also cry when I laugh.

My dad taught me never to be afraid of what's on the other side of the mountain.

Even without an economic downturn, women sometimes want to keep their shopping habits to themselves.

We haven't even begun to see just how many transactions are going to take place online.

Women just love to shop.

If you're a teenager in Palo Alto launching an app, you know from the outset how you plan to finance your business.

In 13 years of doing my day job, I've learned a few things about motivating people. It's about setting a vision and, as long as everyone knows why they're doing what they're doing, you achieve that vision.

I just wear what I like, and lots of it is British.

I think I'm a better mother because of work, because I'm happy. If I wasn't working, I would just be waiting for the kids to come home every day, and living vicariously through their lives.

Work means independence. It allowed me to shape my life on so many levels.

Twice I let people talk me out of good ideas.

The Internet is a gift to fashion.

Anna Wintour has guided me.

I love contemporary culture. Even the stuff I don't like.

Net-a-porter is an environment where a woman can really indulge, browsing through more than 160 brands in our fashion playground.

I don't get manicures, pedicures. I don't get my hair done as often as I should.

The fashion cycle is outdated.

I'm an accidental entrepreneur.

When I was at U.C.L.A., I decided I was going to go to Japan and learn Japanese.

Net-a-Porter offers catwalk fashion and trend-driven shopping, but for Mr Porter, while fashion is still important, style is key.