I know I'm old-fashioned, but there's just something about the act of looking at books versus taking in information on a screen, which is so one-dimensional. There's a sense of ownership that you have with books, a physical connection.

One of the things I've always loved about New York is there is so much precedent for ornament on industrial buildings.

Tension is an interesting quality - and architecture must have it. There should be elements of the inexplicable, the mysterious, and the poetic in something that is perfectly rational.

I make spaces that are calm rather than confrontational. I seek a certain kind of logic that allows you to move in space and perceive it as beautiful and rational. Clarity is a worthwhile quality.

To me, the nicest luxury would be to have a room where I could keep all my books in one place - and have space for more.

So much of what makes a room great is how you enter and circulate through it, how it addresses the body.

When everything is perfectly orderly and understandable, there has to be one thing that puts everything into question.