I don't care what people call me, labels have the negative value of making smaller boundaries for people.

My favorite is the garlic press. I think it's beautiful as an object. But the awkward part of it all is that I don't use it much because I'm allergic to garlic.

In any architecture, there is an equity between the pragmatic function and the symbolic function.

The Alessi relationship and the Target one has broadened the role of architects in society and broadened the concept that design belongs to everyone.

I have architects write to me and ask me: How do you - and what do you do to - design the magic thing? I answer that very carefully. It's not necessarily about what you do, but the clients you do it for. You should write to Target, not me.

I once got a postcard from a French poet who wrote - "you don't know me but I'm always very grumpy when I get up in morning. But when I get up now I put the tea kettle on, and when it starts to sing it makes me smile - goddamn you!" That's what happened when we first designed it - we got a lot of mail.

The dialogue of architecture has been centered too long around the idea of truth.