I made a decision when I was in school that I'd have a lot of male friends.

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.

Wherever I am in the world, my perfect day begins with waking up and heading to the beach or the pool or somewhere I can be semi-comatose. I just wake up and go to the sun.

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 think about architecture all the time. That's the problem. But I've always been like that. I dream it sometimes.

I don't use the computer. I do sketches, very quickly, often more than 100 on the same formal research.

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