For me, every day is a new thing.

The culture of France is unique because it's a culture that has a high priority on the arts, more than any other place in the world in our time since Greece. So as a practicing artist, if you will, this is home ground. They love us, so music, literature, art continues to be the center.

The architect Borromini's Quattro Fontane, a little church in Rome, is one of the most beautiful rooms in history.

Man, there's another freedom out there, and it comes from somewhere else, and that somewhere else is the place I'm interested in.

When I start my class I ask the students to write their signatures on pieces of paper and put them on a table. I have them look at them, and I point out, "They're all different, aren't they? That's you, that's you, that's you, that's you."

The rap on me on the street is the opposite - I'm impractical, I'm more expensive, it's too complicated and I run over budgets, which isn't true. None of that's true and there's plenty of documentation if anybody needs it.

I don't know how to overcome this perception that I'm extravagant.