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.

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

When I was very little, we would get letters from China, in Chinese, and they' be censored. We were a very insular little family.

How we are using up our home, how we are living and polluting the planet is frightening. It was evident when I was a child. It's more evident now.

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.

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

If we can't face death, we'll never overcome it. You have to look it straight in the eye. Then you can turn around and walk back out into the light.