Erich Mendelsohn's drawings are expressive and beautiful. If he'd had the computers we have now, everything I've done he would have done before me. I would have had to figure out something else.

People say, "This is the world the way it is, and don't bother me." Then when somebody does something different, real architecture, the push-back is amazing. People resist it. At first it's new and scary.

One of my greatest influences is the Italian artist Gian Lorenzo Bernini.

The fact is I'm an opportunist. I'll take materials around me, materials on my table, and work with them as I'm searching for an idea that works.

It should begin much earlier with arts education in the American school system, which is sadly deficient.

I don't think all buildings have to be iconic, but the history of the world has shown us that cultures build iconic buildings for their major public buildings.

Each project, I suffer like I'm starting over again in life. There's a lot of healthy insecurity that fuels this stuff.