Generally in our world, whether in architecture or almost anywhere else, we devalue the artist, and schools at whatever level shut people down.

In the end, the character of a civilization is encased in its structures.

It's not new that architecture can profoundly affect a place, sometimes transform it. Architecture and any art can transform a person, even save someone. It can for children - for anyone. It still does for me.

You have to be optimistic. I still have doubts and conflicts, but the bottom line is, I believe in the future.

We live and work in boxes. People don't even notice that. Most of what's around us is banal. We live with it. We accept it as inevitable. People say, "This is the world the way it is, and don't bother me."

The architect Borromini's Quattro Fontane, a little church in Rome, is one of the most beautiful rooms in history.

It's not new that architecture can profoundly affect a place, sometimes transform it.