My flat is a bit like an oriental bazaar. It's filled with the oddest objects from all my travels, and you can't really move in it. I love collecting antiques and often spend weekends driving around bric-a-brac markets.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
My father loved antique shops and shows, and quite a bit of my childhood involved outings to dim, dusty places packed with cast-off treasures.
Junk stands and antique markets are the perfect place to pick up clues about the history of a country, region or town.
I've always been interested in DIY and home renovation - even from my first student flat. I've always left places better than when I moved in.
I don't really have a domestic inclination. Even my apartment has a semblance of a storage facility. It's just stacks, there are no bookshelves, just books and piles of stamp collections and weird little sewing and knitting projects.
I started buying bits of broken porcelain. I furnished our first flat with pieces of 'junk.' Some of that 'junk' is now worth an awful lot of money. What I was calling 'junk' in the '60s people wouldn't call 'junk' now.
I love antique architecture, so if I have any indulgences, I have owned and renovated and reconstructed a lot of old houses.
I quite like antiques. I like things that are old and the history they bring with them. I would rather fly to Morocco on an $800 ticket and buy a chair for $300 than spend $1,100 on one at Pottery Barn.
I like things clean, and I have a biannual clean-out of my apartment. I throw out raggedy things and things I never wear, and there's a Goodwill around the corner for anything worthwhile.
I shop at thrift stores a lot. I have a lot of silver pitchers and I put my flowers in those. I collect antiques, so there are a lot of old rocking chairs... My friends call my home the vortex because nobody wants to leave.
My flat in Ladbroke Grove, west London, is in the best building in the world. It's like a commune - everyone gets on - and on Friday evenings I often cook us all dinner.