People don't talk to you properly. It's the way they talk to you; they dismiss you. I think it's a combination of me being a woman and a foreigner.

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

It's not my duty as an architect to look at it.

The goal posts might shift, but you should have a goal.

When I taught, all my best students were women.

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.

In terms of form, all the projects interest me equally, although there are obviously large differences according to the scale and process of each project.