On a Friday night in 1983, I was in a taxi in New York riding home from dinner with friends. A drunk driver ran a red light and hit the cab, and I was thrown toward the glass partition. I tried to duck, but my face hit the glass, and the impact fractured my cheekbone, my eye socket, my collarbone and several ribs.
— Iman
People talk about the miracle of birth. No. There's the miracle of conception. I did IVF, but nothing happened. So I began to think of adoption, and then I got pregnant. It was definitely a miracle.
I don't look like a white woman. I look Somali.
My looks have changed. I have laugh lines - not wrinkles.
I have a certain manner of speech that is unique to me. I tried once to have my staff tweet for me, and it was a disaster! People knew right away that it wasn't me.
I am so far more secure and more grounded and more know who I am than when I was in my 20s.
We are very private, so we decided from early on that we will keep the press and editors and everybody out of our house.
I have no intention of ever writing beauty tips on how to make an African-American nose look slimmer or Asian eyes look bigger. That's degrading. Asian eyes are what's beautiful about you and what makes you different.
I was not considered beautiful at all. Really. And this is what all models say. But I'm still not considered that beautiful in my country. I don't know the beauty ideal where I come from - but it's not me.
Mrs. Obama is not a great beauty. But she is so interesting-looking - so bright. That will always take you farther.
It's really not a good idea to forecast or double guess the fates; you will always be fooled.
My mother was an activist; so was my father. They came from a generation of young Somalis who were actively involved in getting independence for Somalia in 1960.
Bowie is just a persona. He's a singer, an entertainer. David Jones is a man I met.
I would rather Google other people than Google myself.
I didn't start exercising until the end of my modeling career. When you're young, you eat and drink what you want and stay up all night and still look good.
I was never a practicing Muslim. But I do consider myself a Muslim.
I started the cosmetics in 1994 after I stopped modeling, out of my frustration as a woman of color not finding what I needed.
I'm a very political person, and I think things through clearly, even when I was 18 years old.
Granted, I've changed internally as I've gotten older - I take it easy, I know when to stop and take care of myself, I laugh much more and with my belly and soul - but this comes from the confidence and acceptance that comes with maturity.
My father... gave me a positive connection with men because he is a gentleman.
Nobody has ever said to me that I was pretty, 'til I met Peter Beard.
The women I gravitate to are the ones who defy convention and reinvent themselves - hence, they reinvent the world around them.
Beauty is being comfortable and confident in your own skin.
One afternoon, on my way to the campus - I was majoring in political science at Nairobi University - a photographer by the name of Peter Beard stopped me in the street and asked me if I'd ever been photographed.
There is no age better than another. The commitment to give of yourself and the knowledge that the time is right are what's important.
When my daughter Zulekha was born, I was at the pinnacle of my working life as a model, and I pulled myself in two trying to cope with being both a mother and a career girl.
I wasn't a major in political science for nothing, so I understood the politics of beauty and the politics of race when it comes to the fashion industry.
As I always said: I fell in with David Jones. I did not fall in love with David Bowie.
I suffer from low self-esteem. I had horrible self-esteem growing up. You really have to save yourself because the critic within you will eat you up. It's not the outside world - it's your interior life, that critic within you, that you have to silence.
I like to get up around 5:30 or six - that's my favorite time of day. My family is still asleep, and the office is still closed, so I can start my day slowly.
The difference between rearing a child in your 20s and one in your 50s is one of patience.
When I was in high school,we were, like, 4,000 or 5,000 students, and 50 girls - and I didn't have a date for my prom. My father paid my cousin to take me.
I can enjoy what I'm engaged in and be fully present rather than planning my answers to questions while someone else is speaking or thinking about my next appointment while my current engagement is still in in progress.
On my 50th birthday in 2005, my discount-wielding AARP card came in the mail. I hurled it in the trash, put on something fabulous, and had a decadent meal. Just the thought of putting it in my wallet felt like a concession.
I did not want to get involved with a rock star. No way. It is not a sane thing to do.
I have been a muse to Mr. Saint-Laurent, Valentino, Calvin Klein, Donna Karan, Versace.
The day you settle for less is the day you will get less.
There are highlights when you become irreplaceable as a model, like when you become a muse to designers. They look at you differently; you're not a coat hanger for hire.
I was born in Somalia, which is in East Africa. My parents started with nothing: poor, poor, poor. They eloped, which was unheard of in my country, when my father was 17 and my mother was 14.
I'm lucky in some ways in that I really don't need more than five or so hours of sleep.
I am the face of a refugee. I was once a refugee. I was with my family in exile.
People called me 'Iman the black model'. In my country, we're all black, so nobody called somebody else black. It was foreign to my ears.
I vowed to myself when I got married that I would cook every night. I find it very therapeutic.
My ritual is cooking. I find it therapeutic. It comes naturally to me. I can read a recipe and won't have to look at it again.
If I feel frustrated in a situation, I take a deep breath and walk away.
