As a painter I make up projects for myself to express myself. And there's no client, there's no direction.

What happens is people - especially, I think, audiences in the United States - people confront new things a little bit afraid. It's like when you're a kid and your mother puts something on your plate you never ate before. I think that American audiences are very much like that, and when they can accept something new they can accept the next new thing, it's incredible. And what happens is that their expectation of what things should be is elevated, and that's really terrific for us.

Whatever you design[/make/build], use it to raise the expectations of what can be achieved

I'm hoping that I continue to be innovative on things that are tremendously visible and are still important projects.

I know that in my own work I'm able to do all kinds of things I never thought I'd be able to do.

You can build an ordinary hot dog stand or you can build a spectacular one, and you can do it sometimes without that much difference in money - if somebody thinks about it.

What you do is look at yourself and find your own way to address the fact that the times have changed and that you have to pay attention. You can't be a designer and say, "Oh, this is timeless".