I don't particularly like showing furniture on pedestals, but for whatever reasons you always have to in museums.

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.

It's very important for cities all around the world to reinvent themselves, and Glasgow is a good example of that. The Scots are very nice. I don't think they are burdened by their history.

When I was growing up in Iraq, there was an unbroken belief in progress and a great sense of optimism. It was a moment of nation building.

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 don't like the masculine style, jeans. I like issey miyake... and black dresses.

I am quite sensitive to politics, because you know, as an Arab, an Iraqi, all your life, you are very conscious of it.