I hate the word starchitect. Stuff like that comes from mean-spirited, untalented journalists. It's demeaning.

It's not elitist to acknowledge that everyone has a unique signature and everyone is different.

My father probably - he had flashes of creativity - he used to do store windows for fruit stores that he worked in and stuff.

The message I hope to have sent is just the example of being yourself. I tell this to my students: It's not about copying me or my logic systems. It's about allowing yourself to be yourself.

And I realized, when I'd come in to the meetings with these corrugated metal and chain link stuff, and people would just look at me like I'd just landed from Mars. But I couldn't do anything else. That was my response to the people and the time.

If you're serious about being an architect, you've got to learn how to take responsibility.

I found the material that people hated the most and used the most. So, I was going and try and see if I could play with it sculpturally.