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.

Art is very tricky because it's what you do for yourself. It's much harder for me to make those works than the monuments or the architecture.

I do think the smaller-scale studio works have that incredible love of data crunching, whereas I would say the large-scale earthworks tend to be much more stripped-down. With the mappings, as connected as they are to a much more analytical idea, what's a map? And can I make a map about time? I think the first time was Hurricane Sandy, the flood plane; a moment in time, but indelibly marked on any of us who were in the city. Mapping time is something that I'm really interested in.

You have to let the viewers come away with their own conclusions. If you dictate what they should think, you've lost it.

If you don't remember history accurately, how can you learn?

I loved logic, math, computer programming. I loved systems and logic approaches. And so I just figured architecture is this perfect combination.

I do not think you can find a reason for everything you make.