If a dictator takes up my ideas, the resulting town will survive the political system that commissioned it and stand as a social good. Besides, modernism rather than classicism has dominated the architecture of totalitarian regimes of both the left and right.

Authentic architecture is not the incarnation of the spirit of the age but of the spirit, full stop.

Lots of English people say exactly the opposite of what they mean.

Viewed from a certain distance and under good light, even an ugly city can look like the promised land.

As is the case with all good things in life - love, good manners, language, cooking - personal creativity is required only rarely.

A city is not an accident but the result of coherent visions and aims.

All buildings, large or small, public or private, have a public face, a facade; they therefore, without exception, have a positive or negative effect on the quality of the public realm, enriching or impoverishing it in a lasting and radical manner. The architecture of the city and public space is a matter of common concern to the same degree as laws and language—they are the foundation of civility and civilisation.