Ninety percent of the buildings we live in and around aren't architecture. No, that's not right - 98 percent.

I don't micromanage the interiors. People ask me to and I say no. I don't want to control everything.

There is stuff I would have liked to have done. But there are no sour grapes.

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

A well-designed home has to be very comfortable. I can't stand the aesthetes, the minimal thing. I can't live that way. My home has to be filled with stuff - mostly paintings, sculpture, my fish lamps, cardboard furniture, lots of books.

I refuse to work unless I get paid, so I don't get a lot of work sometimes.

My father was an urchin that lived in Hell's Kitchen. He was part of a family of nine. I mean, there were times that were better and worse, but mostly, by the time we got to L.A., they'd lost whatever they had. And it was a sad time. And both he and I became truck drivers for different companies.