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.

Life in the Middle East is quite different from other places.

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

All the privileged can travel, see different worlds, not everyone can. I think it is important for people to have an interesting locale nearby.

Good education is so important. We do need to look at the way people are taught. It not just about qualifications to get a job. It's about being educated.

I don't think people should do things because you know, 'I am turning this age, I must go have a husband.' If you find somebody and it works out then have kids, it's very nice. But if you don't, you don't.

Contrary to popular view, I've never been patronized in the Middle East. Men maybe treat women differently, but they do not treat them with disrespect. They don't hate women. It's a very different kind of mentality.