To me, the American Dream is being able to follow your own personal calling. To be able to do what you want to do is incredible freedom.

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

The definition of a modern approach to war is the acknowledgement of individual lives lost.

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.

I had very few friends. We always ate dinner with our parents. We didn't want to go out. American adolescence was a lot wilder than I would have felt comfortable with.

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 begin by imagining an artwork verbally. I try to describe in writing what the project is, what it is trying to do. I need to understand the artwork without giving it a specific materiality or solid form.