All my work is much more peaceful than I am.

Our lives are given meaning by our actions-accomplishments made while we are "here" that extend beyond our own time.

A lot of my works deal with a passage, which is about time. I don't see anything that I do as a static object in space. It has to exist as a journey in time.

I'm not in a hurry to do a lot of projects. I am very resolved in each project I take on.

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 also wanted remembering the past relevant to the present. Some people wanted me to put the names in alphabetical order. I wanted them in chronological order so that a veteran could find his time within the panel. It's like a thread of life.

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.