The idea for a building or an object can come up just as quick, but there is a big difference in process.

You have to be very focused and work very hard, but it is not about working hard without knowing what your aim is!

You really have to have a goal.

I've always been interested in combining architecture with a social agenda, and I really think you can invest and be inventive with hospitals and housing.

I will always have two regrets. I don't have a presence in London, and I would have liked to have done more work in the Middle East.

I miss aspects of being in the Arab world - the language - and there is a tranquility in these cities with great rivers. Whether it's Cairo or Baghdad, you sit there and you think, 'This river has flown here for thousands of years.' There are magical moments in these places.

You really have to have a goal. The goal posts might shift, but you should have a goal. Know what it is you want to find out.