Amy Li

My father was a successful real estate developer, and he was a very tough man but a good man. My father would always praise me. He always thought I was the smartest person.

I learned more from my mother than from all the art historians and curators who have informed me about technical aspects of art history and art appreciation over the years.

Those who have never had a father can at any rate never know the sweets of losing one. To most men the death of his father is a new lease of life.

A few years after my first son was born, he wanted to know how we chose his name, so I began reading him the story of Noah’s Ark.

We let Willow cut her hair. When you have a little girl, it’s like, how can you teach her that your in control of her body? If I teach her that I’m in charge of whether or not she can touch her hair, she’s going to replace me with some other man when she goes out into the world. She can’t cut my hair, but that’s her hair. She has got to have command over her body. So when she goes out into the world, she goes out with command that it’s hers. She is used to making those decisions herself. We try to keep giving them those decisions until they can hold the full weight of their lives.

Up until I was 12 my sisters used to dress me up as a girl and introduce me as ‘Claudia’! Twelve was a turning point as I moved to a mixed school and then I became cool and discovered hair gel.

My father would always praise me. He always thought I was the smartest person

I believed in raising my children as I had been raised.

You have to love your children unselfishly. That is hard. But it is the only way.

As children we recognized that we belonged to an unusual, even exceptional, family, but the effect was different on each of us.

I’ve always wanted to be a mom at 23, 24ish, ever since I was a little girl. I’m right on schedule.

She does have a very nice figure… If [Ivanka] weren’t my daughter, perhaps I’d be dating her.

My son has a big Christmas problem – what do you buy for a father who has everything and you’re using it?

I tell my children now that they are older, ‘If something happens to me… don’t make no big fuss over me. Don’t make no big expense on my funeral. Don’t put any pressure on the rest of the family. I’ve loved everybody, and I hope they loved me. But don’t create this big expense for the family.’

I’m pretty conservative or old-fashion, I should say, it’s how I grew up. I think you have to let your children be individuals, but you have to set boundaries. Ryan and I have similar ideas about all of it, you really have to support you partner in the things that are important to them and hold the line together.