It was such a depressing time. I didn't look very depressed, maybe, but it was really dire. I made a conscious decision not to stop, but it could have gone the other way.

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.

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

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

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.

Being Iraqi taught me to be very cautious.

Architecture is unnecessarily difficult. It's very tough.