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.

My father always told me that I was going to be a failure - I think he was more talking about himself, but I didn't know it at the time.

Some cultures tried to stop people from expressing themselves. In Mao's China, for example, the Communists tried to stop individual expression. For them the payoff was a society of equality. The problem of course is that it didn't work.

Erich Mendelsohn's drawings are expressive and beautiful. If he'd had the computers we have now, everything I've done he would have done before me. I would have had to figure out something else.

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

I do my best to choose carefully. If I don’t feel that collaboration is going to happen, I say no. Think about it. These projects can involve a five-to-seven-year partnership. If you don’t feel comfortable with someone, you can’t get rid of them. I just walked away from a job for that reason. Every one of these projects is an emotional investment, like falling in love. You’ve got to believe in it and you’ve got to like the people you work with.

I can't just decide myself what's being built. Someone decides what they want, then I work for them.