Our parents decided not to teach us Chinese. It was an era when they felt we would be better off if we didn't have that complication.

Even though I build buildings and I pursue my architecture, I pursue it as an artist. I deliberately keep a tiny studio. I don't want to be an architectural firm. I want to remain an artist.

I like to think of my work as creating a private conversation with each person, no matter how public each work is and no matter how many people are present

It terrified me to have an idea that was solely mine to be no longer a part of my mind, but totally public.

I started studying what the nature of a monument is and what a monument should be. And for the World War III memorial I designed a futile, almost terrifying passage that ends nowhere.

My dad was dean of fine arts at the university. I was casting bronzes in the school foundry. I was using the university as a playground.

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