Top 42 Quotes & Sayings by Crystal Renn

There are moments in your life where you're like I have arrived. I'm here and I'm living and I'm present. And working with Jean Paul Gaultier was one of them.

Anorexia is a disease that happens to people, mostly women and girls, who have obsessive, perfectionist personalities.

I just couldn't have people thinking that I only believe thin is beautiful. Thin is beautiful, but it's not the only kind of beautiful. I didn't want people to get the wrong message because of some retouching.

We all have demons. I am a human being and I have bad days and I have bad things going on in my head that I have to deal with, but I'm very confident in my recovery.

Besides being a model, I'm a human and a woman.

Redken is a brand I've been using since I was a kid, my grandmother introduced it to me, my mother used it, so obviously I was very aware of the brand, so when I heard we were going to meet and potentially do something in the future, I was very excited.

Ninety-nine percent of girls want to be models because they believe it will mean that they are the most beautiful women in the world. They think that they will wear expensive clothes, makes loads of money, travel a lot and have a rock star for a boyfriend. This never interested me. I didn't want anyone to scream out my name. I wanted to make art, to create an image with a photographer. And yes, I wanted to get out of Clinton, Mississippi - a small town that was so closed-minded you can't even imagine.

The girls everyone considers the "prettiest" are not always the most interesting or ambitious people.

I absolutely believe that when one goes on vacation, it should be pure decadence.

Too many of us feel that we have to be perfect, in order to be loved.

Models walking down the street are very rarely recognized as such. It is often the same as it was for me: models were the school freaks. Way too thin and their eyes way too far apart. They were not the ideal. But then they put on fantastic clothes, have their make up done and you have this special beauty. It's a creation.

I was anorexic. I was in hell. Now I eat what I want, and I'm still a model. So you see, it works.

We can always find each other, we girls with secrets.

It's so hard to give beauty a meaning. I actually find quite a lot of beauty in really painful things. Really grotesque things. Things that are disturbing. I think as you go and as you see things in the world, your idea of beauty expands and I think I'm lucky because I've been exposed to so many different types of beauty and I've realized that any feeling you cherish is beautiful.

Models should just be beautiful women who inspire others. They won't be starving themselves because they are being accepted for themselves. Any thinner than today's ideals would be impossible. Any thinner means dead.

All women bring something different to the table and we have to appreciate them all.

I have made a choice to listen to myself even if everyone in the entire world doesn't agree with what I think. I know me, at the end of the day and I know what I can handle emotionally and what I can handle physically.

The problem is that we as a society simply accept these unrealistic standards: that you have to be thin to be perfect, to be beautiful, to be successful at work and to have a good relationship. And it is making us sick. This self-loathing is crippling women.

Pascal Wager invented the calculator and he also said you can apply mathematics to faith in God so I thought that was pretty interesting.

No one wants to say they hate their own body. Many are scared that if they confide in others then people will look down on them. This is wrong. It's not weak to talk about it. On the contrary. It's the same with alcoholics and drug addicts - you have to be honest with yourself first. When you have accepted the negatives you can then focus on the positives, like, I have nice hair, nice eyes, great cheekbones.

Enough time had passed that I was ready to write the book Hungry. Was it absolutely difficult? Completely. I had to go back and relive one of the more traumatic things in my life. I destroyed my body for three years and I nearly killed myself for a passion that I had. But I was finally able to close the door on that part of my life. It also allowed me to have a voice. And that's something I've wanted since I was a young girl, to be able to be heard.

I've been collecting crystals for many, many years for healing purposes and decoration. I guess since my name is Crystal, I have no choice.

I think there's a lot you can learn from everybody; everybody has a story and a strength within them.

I have no problem with plus-size term because it kind of saved my life; however I don't love that we have to give each other titles. I don't think that there's any reason I should be any different than a size two girl. But I'm not embarrassed of that term. I'm lucky that I have a place where I can model and be healthy.

Looking back, it didn't even occur to me that model was a job. I wanted to go into astronomy or to be a lawyer, which is really funny because I would absolutely not be a lawyer in any way now. But I still like astronomy.

No matter what size you are, you must be healthy. I focus on health as a model, whether it's doing yoga, hiking, kickboxing - those things bring me joy.

Do I have bad days? Absolutely. But there are ways to overcome these things and that's perhaps what I do differently: I don't allow myself to dwell day after day on my imperfections.

Photoshop is an art, and you can do a lot with it. Change the atmosphere through different lighting and make the pictures look more interesting.

I believe in trying foods from all over the world, going to markets and finding jewelry and furniture and just treating myself well. It's important for me creatively to travel.

We women are a lot more powerful if we see ourselves as fighters on the same side. But it’s easier to judge others - their choices and their bodies - than to think about the struggles we share.

I'm very lucky that I have people styling my hair and teaching me how to work with it, but it wasn't always like that. Growing up, I had extremely wavy and thick hair and that can be very overwhelming - you end up with the same ponytail every day.

I am a good model because I have mastered my craft. I have accepted my body, I know it well and I know how to move in front of the camera.

I want to be an actress when I'm on set, not just a model. Those are the moments I live for.

You can never go wrong with a nice red lip. I'm not afraid to wear it during the day or basically any time because I wear a lot of black and it's a great backdrop for it.

There's been a lot of focus on my body, but it's taught me to appreciate myself no matter where I am.

Focus and having energy is the most important goal when choosing my activities and how I treat myself.

I like to think of myself as a child of the world. I really am based in New York but I find that even though I'm based there, I'm gone more often than not.

I have to say the thing that I want to do so badly is design a line. I still don't know exactly what direction I want to go but designing a line for full-figured women, offering them a chance to have chic clothing that's maybe a little more daring than the clothing they've been offered in the past, I would like the opportunity to create that for them. I'd also like to break into the beauty industry and be the face of a makeup line. I think for it sends a fantastic message: Here's the face of beauty and look, she's a bigger size.

My body has changed and it will continue change in the future — that is natural for anyone. What matters to me most is that even though external change is inevitable, my passion for encouraging women to love themselves at any size and to live, thrive, and to go after their dreams is a part of my permanent nature. Even though my body and mind may evolve through life and experience, my values on this matter have not.

That's what I stand for, telling people you can be just who you are. It's actually more beautiful.

I walked into my agency and I said, "You know what? I can't do this. You're telling me I need to go on a diet? My diet is already zucchini only. What do you want me to do?" And basically, they gave me two options: either stay the way I was and do commercial work, or do plus size modeling. I remember having the usual salad but I added walnuts and salmon and olive oil and I thought, "The world didn't blow up!"I felt fantastic. I wanted to keep that feeling so I made a decision that day that I didn't care. There was more money to be made being healthy.

We're fighting a stigma: fat. People are really scared of fat. And I think we need to change people's minds and show that you can be bigger and you can be beautiful just as you are. It's about being and loving yourself and once I discovered that, life got much easier.