Stephen Sprouse

The photograph, the clothes, the sets - this was about 1974, and I started hanging out with my friend Richard Sold, who was playing in a band with Patti Smith.

That's how I taught myself how to draw - tracing the ads and petting new clothes on the models.

I grew up in Columbus, Indiana, a kind of industrial and farmland place.

There's a whole bunch of unfinished stuff. Then I've got books of lyrics. I find it frustrating to finish a song and not be able to record it... so I don't write a million songs.

I thank Marc Jacobs so much for giving me the opportunity to design a shoe for Louis Vuitton, but the thing that broke my heart most was when they said, 'You're finished. The shoe's finished.'

If you have a block of ballistics gelatin and a high-speed camera, pretty soon somebody gets a gun!