I have always thought that L.A. is a motor city that developed linear downtowns.

Each project, I suffer like I'm starting over again in life. There's a lot of healthy insecurity that fuels this stuff.

What I have learned about museum buildings is that buildings have to have iconic presentations. The position of the art museum vis-a-vis other civic buildings needs to be hierarchal in the community. It has to be equal to the library and the courthouse.

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."

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

Architecture should speak of its time and place, but yearn for timelessness.

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.