I'm not Candide, nor Dr Pangloss, but we know that faith moves mountains.

I think there is a new awareness in this 21st century that design is as important to where and how we live as it is for museums, concert halls and civic buildings.

When you're a kid with artistic yearnings brought up in the Bronx, you don't get fed up too easily.

And, yes, I love the process of building.

You cannot suddenly make Lower Manhattan into a sad place because we saw such a dramatic loss of life. You have to balance the memory, which is so important, and use it as a kind of Archimedean Point to create a lively, incredibly interesting, and culturally significant piece of a city and neighborhood.

Architecture is not based on concrete and steel, and the elements of the soil. It's based on wonder.

Winning a competition in architecture is a ticket to oblivion. It's just an idea. Ninety-nine per cent never get built.