You can't ignore history; you can't escape it even if you want to. You might as well know where you come from, and you might as well know that everything has been done in some shape or form.

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.

Everyone has a desire, if not a need, to use their individual signatures. Whenever people meet to talk about a project, even stuffy old businessmen, they say they want to create something new.

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.

That's what you have to find in architecture. You have to find your signature. When you find it, you're the only expert on it. People can say they like it or don't like it. They can argue about it, but it's yours.

Computers allow architects to remain parental instead of being marginalized by the contractors and managers.