We say we want to create beauty, identity, quality, singularity. And yet, maybe in truth these cities that we have are desired. Maybe their very characterlessness provides the best context for living.

We discovered a person in Lagos who had a fish stall, and within a single square metre she carried two children all the way to Harvard. She supported an unbelievable escape of her children into education. In that sense it was a city completed pixillated, and every pixel contained amazing stories.

The areas of consensus shift unbelievably fast; the bubbles of certainty are constantly exploding.

In the end, there will be little else for us to do but shop.

Let's put it this way: One can be happy or unhappy in a building. But some buildings make us more depressed than others.

Criticism per se does not worry me. I've always solicited it as part of the design process.

I like fashion, whether or not it's overpriced, because it creates a sense of the sublime with relatively few means.