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.

I cannot force a design; I do not see this process as being under my conscious control.

Nothing is ever guaranteed, and all that came before doesn't predicate what you might do next.

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

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

I though about what death is, what a loss is. A sharp pain that lessens with time, but can never quite heal over. A scar. The idea occurred to me there on the site. Take a knife and cut open the earth, and with time the grass would heal it. As if you cut open the rock and polished it.

I can't shout out, "Do this." I don't want to be prescriptive. I want to give you facts, and that's the way I've always operated, whether it's a historical fact or a scientific fact, and then you actually have to connect it in your brain.