For the most part things never get built the way they were drawn.

The only thing that mattered was what you were to do in life, and it wasn't about money. It was about teaching, or learning.

The role of art in society differs for every artist.

I probably spent the first 20 years of my life wanting to be as American as possible. Through my 20s, and into my 30s, I began to become aware of how so much of my art and architecture has a decidedly Eastern character.

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.

I try to give people a different way of looking at their surroundings. That's art to me.

Math, it's a puzzle to me. I love figuring out puzzles.