I'm preprogrammed emotionally and intellectually not to go down blind alleys. I don't waste the time. I automatically edit out whatever's impractical.

There are people who design buildings that are not technically and financially good, and there are those who do. Two categories - simple.

I don't know whose box I'm in, and I don't really care.

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

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."

The back of Saint Peter's is one of the finest pieces of architecture I've ever seen.

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.