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.

When I taught, all my best students were women.

The world is looking more and more segmented, the difference between people is becoming greater.

As a woman, I'm expected to want everything to be nice and to be nice myself. A very English thing. I don't design nice buildings - I don't like them. I like architecture to have some raw, vital, earthy quality.

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.

Too many are too obsessed by method. it becomes a dogma.

I love driving around east London - it's always full of surprises. Actually, I don't drive myself - I like to be driven.