Architecture and any art can transform a person, even save someone. It can for children - for anyone. It still does for me.

You can't ignore history; you can't escape it even if you want to. You might as well know where you come from, and you might as well know that everything has been done in some shape or form.

There are places that are so designed they're unlivable.

One of my greatest influences is the Italian artist Gian Lorenzo Bernini.

I used to read more when I was a kid than I do now. It was all sort of fuel for the fire to teach you how to think and how to make things and it informed the architecture that I was doing. It's better coming in with that history and that kind of knowledge and depth of understanding of humanity that is very important for building buildings - for understanding people and how they should live and how you could make your lives better and stuff like that.

Man, there's another freedom out there, and it comes from somewhere else, and that somewhere else is the place I'm interested in.

The best advice I've received is to be yourself. The best artists do that.