The institutions are working better now, the banks are much more functional. At this time, 1997, there were no mobile phones! It's a whole different thing now with mobile phones: technology has created a form of regulation, because people can actually talk to each other a lot more.

Influence is a very unpleasant subject and I deal with it in a maybe irresponsible way, which is to really ignore it. It would be a nightmare if we started to really think about it; it would tie our hands, it would tie everyone elses hands.

A building has at least two lives - the one imagined by its maker and the life it lives afterward - and they are never the same.

Lagos has also had a particular effect on my career. I was there early, and although it was a courageous step to go there and invest on this scale - I went there maybe 20 times - it's also been also super-controversial. There's an old school of thought that somebody like me has no place to go there.Because of colonialism and so on.

The acceptance of certain realities doesn't preclude idealism. It can lead to certain breakthroughs.

If you have this reputation you can sit back and endure it, or you can try to do things with it.

Manhattan is an accumulation of possible disasters that never happen.