Excerpts from an O Magazine interview with Diane Von Furstenberg:
On what her mother, an Auschwitz survivor, taught her: She taught me never, ever, ever think of yourself as a victim. No matter what.
I surround myself with young people, I don’t feel my age. I mean, I know I am my age, and I don’t try to hide it. But I have a lot of energy, and I’m curious about the world. And in any situation in life, I always say, “Well, how can I help?”
I don’t think it’s nice to think you’re beautiful. You end up counting too much on it. I had to count on my personality. And my legs.
-What are you proudest of?
-My children. And the great relationship I have with me. That is my biggest source of pleasure. I trust myself, I respect myself, I know I am a good girl, I know I can rely on myself. I like my own company. I am funny. I talk to myself and have a good time.
Mighty Girl 
“I am funny. I talk to myself and have a good time.”
I really appreciate that.
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I love her. I love her attitude. And I love her legs. (I have that same photo in my office to inspire me, and I may have ogled those stems once or twice.)
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Marjorie Ingall wrote a really interesting piece in Tablet magazine about her recent memoir and some of the more troubling aspects of how von Furstenberg frames and remembers the Holocaust, in large part because of her discomfort with the idea of “victimhood.” She is a remarkable woman but forgetting isn’t the same thing as overcoming, especially for the next generation. Check it out: http://tabletmag.com/jewish-life-and-religion/186760/diane-von-furstenburg-tidbits
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