You have to be optimistic. I still have doubts and conflicts, but the bottom line is, I believe in the future.

Architecture should speak of its time and place, but yearn for timelessness.

We live and work in boxes. People don't even notice that. Most of what's around us is banal. We live with it. We accept it as inevitable. People say, "This is the world the way it is, and don't bother me."

There's a drive in us to express ourselves in some way or form. We pick up whatever material is available. It's primitive. Kids see sand on the beach, build something and show their parents: "Look what I did, Mama." It's necessary to us.

I think you've got to accept that certain things are in process that you can't change, that you can't overwhelm. The chaos of our cities, the randomness of our lives, the unpredictability of where you're going to be in ten years from now - all of those things are weighing on us, and yet there is a certain glimmer of control. If you act a certain way, and talk a certain way, you're going to draw certain forces to you.

You see a lot of so-called architecture that part of the ego trip overpowers the functionality and the budget and all that stuff.

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