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I became a set designer for opera.

I am almost famous in China, because I have that Broadway cachet.

I became a set designer for opera. I'm a great opera buff, I love classical music, and I needed a time-out.

I learned about Chinese ceramics and African sculptures, I aired my scanty knowledge of the French Impressionists, and I prospered.

I'm the first American designer who went all over the world.

I made a living out of singing Mexican music.

I didn't really go the starving-artist route. I kind of went and did massive, commercial things.

I started out doing commercials, like Diet Coke and Pizza Hut. And I started to find there was a different life for me, in a different field. From there, I got a call from a director in Italy, and we did 'Indio' I and II, and that's where it started.

I worked in the family business, which was my father's shoe making company that he had inherited from his father, and that led me to become interested in what could be achieved by a great Italian brand. That became my ambition as a young man.