I make a model of the site. There are some obvious things: where the entrance should be, where the cars have to go in. You start to get the scale of it. You understand the client's needs, and what the client is hoping for and yearning for.

The idealism [in architecture] is in the formal arrangement, the relationship to the city, the use of materials that are available to me. That's where I say our powers are limited.

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

With computers we can work everything out from the beginning.

The back of Saint Peter's is one of the finest pieces of architecture I've ever seen.

Architecture and any art can transform a person, even save someone. It can for children - for anyone. It still does for me.

That's why you go into architecture - at least I did - to do things for people. I think most of us are idealists. You start out that way, anyway.