Tension is an interesting quality - and architecture must have it. There should be elements of the inexplicable, the mysterious, and the poetic in something that is perfectly rational.

I was brought up to reuse things.

So much of what makes a room great is how you enter and circulate through it, how it addresses the body.

When you have rules to abide by, does that curtail you as a designer, or set you free? People think of classical architecture visually, but I think the brilliant part of it is actually spatial.

All clients think that they are architects.

The secret of good architecture is having more than meets the eye.

I make spaces that are calm rather than confrontational. I seek a certain kind of logic that allows you to move in space and perceive it as beautiful and rational. Clarity is a worthwhile quality.

One of the things I've always loved about New York is there is so much precedent for ornament on industrial buildings.

What I do isn't radical. It's just distinct in small ways.

When everything is perfectly orderly and understandable, there has to be one thing that puts everything into question.

I'm inspired by looking at art, by looking at precedent. Looking is what you have to do if you want to make things, so you develop a critical eye.

The mind which is reluctant to change or alter is "ME and I". The mind which is ready to get empty and altered is "BUDDHA".

And so I was left with a mantra, a sort of haiku version of our relationship: I don’t regret one day I spent with him, nor did I leave a moment too soon.

When rogues fall out honest men get into their own.

I took a speed-reading course and read War and Peace in twenty minutes. It involves Russia.

In real life, I myself am kind of a rambling guy. I like to travel.

A Christian life based on feeling is headed for a gigantic collapse.

We all come from different levels, and I think every human has their own relationship to violence, athletic violence and fighting.

I'm in love with my job and money comes with that. I do what I can, and in life and in general, you're rewarded for hard work.

Happiness requires that we give up a worldly orientation-not worldly things, but a worldly attachment to things. We have to surrender all outcomes. We have to live here but appreciate the joke.

When I came off the boat I was very proud of the thick calluses which had developed on my feet. But now, I am struggling to get into my favourite high heels which is a shame, as I have so many.