I don't make things with my hands, although I studied woodworking and made furniture.

I don't know why people hire architects and then tell them what to do.

I'm a do-gooder liberal.

If you're serious about being an architect, you've got to learn how to take responsibility. It's not fluff. You have to do every detail on every bloody piece of the building. You have to know how the engineering works. You have to know how the fittings go together. You have to master the mechanical, electrical, acoustical - everything.

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.

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

The safety requirements, which are necessary, spread everything out and push people farther and farther away from the stage and from each other.