We were unusually brought up; there was no gender differentiation. I was never thought of as any less than my brother.

I loved school. I studied like crazy. I was a Class A nerd.

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.

You really can't function as a celebrity. Entertainers are celebrities. I'm an architect. I'm an artist. I make things.

OK, it was black, it was below grade, I was female, Asian American, young, too young to have served. Yet I think none of the opposition in that sense hurt me.

war is not just a victory or loss ... People die.

To me, the American Dream is being able to follow your own personal calling. To be able to do what you want to do is incredible freedom.