I saw the Vietnam Veterans Memorial not as an object placed into the earth but as a cut in the earth that has then been polished, like a geode.

I saw the Vietnam Veterans Memorial not as an object placed into the earth but as a cut in the earth that has then been polished, like a geode. Interest in the land and concern about how we are polluting the air and water of the planet are what make me want to travel back in geologic time-to witness the shaping of the earth before man.

Some artists want to confront. Some want to invoke thought. They're all necessary and they're all valid.

I think I've always had an activist stance, yet at the same time, the other side of me - and this is where some people just don't get it, or they'd prefer it if the work was a lot uglier, a lot louder - I have this personality where I just want to put something out that's a fact and then let you interpret it. It's almost as if you might barely notice it, you might walk right by it, but you have to pay attention.

Warmth isn't what minimalists are thought to have.

My grandfather, on my father's side, helped to draft one of the first constitutions of China. He was a fairly well-known scholar.

Sometimes I think creativity is magic; it's not a matter of finding an idea, but allowing the idea to find you.