The conservative values that are emerging, it may not effect architecture immediately but it will effect society and that's what worries me.

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

The commission process in America and England is different. In America, they do it through an interview process, and it's really based on whether they like you or not. I mean, it's nothing to do with whether you do the best scheme or the worst scheme.

Of course I believe imaginative architecture can make a difference to people's lives, but I wish it was possible to divert some of the effort we put into ambitious museums and galleries into the basic architectural building blocks of society.

People say I design architectural icons. If I design a building and it becomes an icon, that's ok.

They all come out from the same thing; all the projects are connected somehow.

I can't focus when there's too many things around. Whenever I used to go to the office, I used to always say, 'Tidy up.'