In a way I spend my entire life stealing from everything - from the past, from cities I love, from where I grew up - grabbing things, taking not only from architecture but from Italy, art, writing, poetry, music.

There is something about giving everything to your profession. In Italian, an obsession is not necessarily negative. Its the art of putting all your energy into one thing; its the art of transforming even what you eat for lunch into architecture.

London is one of the most civilised places in the world for the procedure of making architecture and urban design.

Architects spend an entire life with this unreasonable idea that you can fight against gravity.

A builder is like a little god - somebody who does things, doesnt just draw things.

Every year I spend one month just sailing, but I still work when Im on the boat. You never separate work from leisure. A boat is like a magic world, like a little island.

One of the great beauties of architecture is that each time, it is like life starting all over again.