Top 40 Lily Cole Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “I love modeling but also see it as a platform for the million other things I want to achieve and create in life.”

— Lily Cole

2. “I was of the type who gets bullied rather than the one who does the bullying, which I’m glad about. I’d rather be that than a bully.”

— Lily Cole

Featured in: Bullying Quotes

3. “I take my books everywhere. Plane journeys are a good opportunity to study, or also when I’m having my hair done.”

— Lily Cole

4. “I don’t think of myself as a role model for others, but I like to live my life by my own integrity. So, in that sense, I might be a positive influence. I do believe you should get over your insecurities and just try to be the best you can.”

— Lily Cole

5. “I love beautiful things; I like having nice clothes, and I can appreciate why other people do – but I’ve also started to learn more about the impact of what we buy: how things are made, how much you buy and the quality of everything.”

— Lily Cole

6. “Giving triggers social cohesion. It’s also the basis for an economy not based on money.”

— Lily Cole

7. “The need to protect the environment has emerged as an undeniably important priority for me.”

— Lily Cole

8. “The narrative of so many fairy tales are timeless in so many different cultures, and they have been since the dawn of man. They represent escapism, but they all feature themes that have such poignancy in a modern world.”

— Lily Cole

9. “I’ll always try to follow my heart into things I love, and modelling is not something I’m dreaming of pursuing forever.”

— Lily Cole

10. “When I was younger, I definitely did face anti-ginger prejudice. As a child, all teasing hurts, whether it’s because you’re fat or a different race or have red hair. I had enough comments from a couple of people to make it a sore point.”

— Lily Cole

11. “There’s an inherent contradiction between appreciating the beauty of clothes and creativity and individuality, and the waste around the ideas of trends and seasons.”

— Lily Cole

12. “It’s hard to appreciate the importance of the rainforest because it seems so far away, but it’s vital to the survival of the planet as we know it.”

— Lily Cole

13. “Talent is crucial. It needs to be driven by motivation, but blind ambition isn’t the key.”

— Lily Cole

14. “I don’t personally follow trends; I don’t even like the idea of trends. I think it’s kind of absurd that you have to change every six months, so I always try and buy things that hopefully I’ll like forever, and resonate with me.”

— Lily Cole

15. “Modelling, fashion and film have all encouraged me to learn more about issues and to feel empowered enough to do something about them.”

— Lily Cole

16. “Don’t overpluck your eyebrows. A make-up artist told me this once, and I’ve always remembered it.”

— Lily Cole

17. “I have set up several businesses as social businesses, and I am a great believer that the power of business should be used for good.”

— Lily Cole

18. “I usually have a lip balm in my bag and mascara as well. I don’t really wear much make-up, but I like mascara because I’ve got fair colouring.”

— Lily Cole

19. “I part-own a bookshop for some strange coincidence of reasons, and it is one of the best things I part-own in my life, or own in my life. I do not know, it just feels great.”

— Lily Cole

20. “If I’m anywhere close to where I can hike or swim, that’s my favourite thing to do.”

— Lily Cole

21. “I think a lot of the most interesting work in art and in films are often kind of polarized opinions and affect people in very different ways, which may be less successful commercially, but they elicit a dialogue that’s quite interesting.”

— Lily Cole

22. “It’s not that I don’t believe in creativity and innovation and new ideas, and the creativity that comes with fashion, which I really respect. But one of my biggest concerns is just how cheap we expect everything to be.”

— Lily Cole

23. “In British culture, redheads get teased at school. But I’ve grown up enough to realize I love my hair.”

— Lily Cole

24. “America has had an influence on me, as has going out with a Cuban-American guy and having lots of American friends. But I am still fundamentally British and speak with a British accent and feel very English.”

— Lily Cole

25. “I have made a living off the way I look, and I have really learnt to accept myself for being unusual.”

— Lily Cole

26. “I guess I try and learn all the time from every experience in life, so my thinking is a hybrid of everything. I’d have to attribute some of that to my work in the fashion industry – in some obscure way.”

— Lily Cole

27. “I don’t believe there’s an afterlife – but I don’t believe there’s an end to life. Consciousness goes beyond the bounds of your body.”

— Lily Cole

28. “Every time I have to try on a wig for work, I get excited about the colour; I’ve often thought about going for a platinum bob or also raven black, as it looks so great against pale skin. But I always end up being loyal to my red colour.”

— Lily Cole

29. “I started modeling at 14. It’s simple. You respond to what the photographer wants and wear other people’s ideas. I got bored with it, though, so I went to university.”

— Lily Cole

30. “I would like better colouration of my legs, like a little less of that English mottled purple thing that makes it necessary to wear tights all the time.”

— Lily Cole

31. “Acting is something I’ve done since I was six years old, performing for my mum and my family in the living room, and I do it because my heart’s in it.”

— Lily Cole

32. “I have to admit I’ve always had quite a complex relationship with modeling and with the idea of advertising: not always knowing what I’m advertising and selling.”

— Lily Cole

33. “People do make assumptions about models. That’s their issue, not mine. It doesn’t bother me because I’m comfortable enough in my own skin – I know who I am.”

— Lily Cole

34. “It doesn’t make me very happy to be on my computer all the time. I’ve never been drawn to that world.”

— Lily Cole

35. “I found going to school when I was modeling very grounding. It’s really kept my perspective on bigger things in my life.”

— Lily Cole

36. “I’m not sure if it’s fair to call it a ‘fairy tale,’ but I really loved ‘Mulan,’ the Disney film. It was my favorite. I guess it’s not really a fairy tale, but you do get Eddie Murphy as a dragon.”

— Lily Cole

37. “I think the media are so hypocritical a lot of the time in the way they chastise something just so that they can print it again.”

— Lily Cole

38. “I think models have a lot less power than they did in the ’80s, when there were, like, only 10 supermodels who could dictate the rules, whereas now there’s so many, and that changes the power dynamic and makes it a more insecure business.”

— Lily Cole

39. “I love yoga. I don’t do it as much as I’d like to, but I feel wonderful when I do.”

— Lily Cole

40. “I was like most teenagers. I wanted to look more conventional – you know, to just be the pretty girl in school.”

— Lily Cole

41. “Marilyn Monroe and Vivienne Leigh are real icons of mine. In terms of visual culture, they are both so iconic. There weren’t any paparazzi shots of them falling out of taxis, so they will always look so incredible.”

— Lily Cole

42. “I paint – I tend more to abstraction – but not as much as I would like to because of time. I would love to do sculpture – I’ve toyed with the idea of fitting in a sculpture course.”

— Lily Cole

43. “I kind of see clothes a bit like role-playing, depending what mood I’m in.”

— Lily Cole

44. “Production chains, how consumers can drive change: all these things may seem at odds with fashion, but arguably, they’re not.”

— Lily Cole

45. “I’ve always cared about issues, always thought through problems. I don’t know how much that comes from my personality or my mum.”

— Lily Cole