I was always making things. Even though art was what I did every day, it didn't even occur to me that I would be an artist.

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.

We know under Nebraska there is an underground aquifer that is probably underneath the whole state, but what form does it take? I kind of want to focus on that, for almost political means, because we keep digging more wells. We're not replenishing, and we're having a crisis in water around the world. But how do you visualize it? I don't know, so I know what I want to study.

I really enjoyed hanging out with some of the teachers. This one chemistry teacher, she liked hanging out. I liked making explosives. We would stay after school and blow things up.

Sometimes you have to stop thinking. Sometimes you shut down completely. I think that's true in any creative field.

Sometimes I think creativity is magic; it's not a matter of finding an idea, but allowing the idea to find you.

I loved logic, math, computer programming. I loved systems and logic approaches. And so I just figured architecture is this perfect combination.