Creativity is about play and a kind of willingness to go with your intuition. It's crucial to an artist. If you know where you are going and what you are going to do, why do it? I think I learned that from the artists, from my grandmother, from all the creative people I've spent time with over the years.

I work from the inside out.

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

My buildings are all on budget.

It's a metaphor for what we're being told: "Just stay in the box, kid, don't muddy the water." Parents say it to their kids. Teachers say it. Schools do. And so people become immune to the sameness.

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

Generally people are more impressed with the services and the comfort issues than the design.