Study your strengths; then decide how hard you want to work

I have a lot of energy. I have a great desire to absorb information. I’m not a sponge exactly, but I find that something I look at — just walking around Williamsburg, for example — is a great opportunity for ideas. I’ve been here before, I’ve seen things before, but now my eye gets keener and keener. So I can pick up little things: just the pattern of a brick walk, or the way they’ve attached a light to a house.

I don't have time to have friends come and stay, except on weekends in Maine. I invite a lot of people to come to Maine.

If you learn something new every day, you can teach something new every day

I had no idea when I went to college what I'd be doing. I took organic chemistry and did terribly, but I was good in English and art. I took many courses and participated in as many activities as I could. I learned a lot about every single thing.

You have to be open to change. I never stop making sure that what I say is the best of what could be said about a particular thing. It's a constant evolution. If I planted a tree one way yesterday and somebody tells me of a better way to plant a tree, I think, You know, they're right, that's better. Then I change my way to accommodate the new way of planting trees.

The last place I would ever want to go is prison.