As a property developer, I learned a long time ago to choose your battles wisely and that, unfortunately, compromise is a given.

Building your own house is a primal urge, one of those universal genetic drives like the need to provide for your family.

Sustainability is now a big baggy sack in which people throw all kinds of old ideas, hot air and dodgy activities in order to be able to greenwash their products and feel good.

Building your own home is about desire, fantasy. But it's achievable; anyone can do it.

I don't look at what people do with their homes in terms of money, but the social and personal value of what they're trying to do and achieve.

Architecture was pretty much the sexiest thing to be doing from 1700-1800.

It's possible to be satisfied with a day's work or a cake, but a life... what is a life but a history of events badly remembered?

Every breath we take as human beings damages the planet.

Generally speaking, I think that if you do anything with commitment and passion, it will come good.

Living an environmentally responsible lifestyle can seem like a Scrooge-like list of don'ts. Don't take that flight, don't buy that car, don't eat those blueberries flown in from somewhere far-flung.

I'm terribly fastidious. I like symmetry and neatness, but my house is as chaotic as any other family's.

Never lose a chance of saying a kind word.

Here my tears are falling, Nastenka. Let them flow, let them flow - they don't hurt anybody. They will dry Nastenka.

I would rather be accused of breaking precedents than breaking promises.

I'm truly obsessed by clothes. I just buy clothes all the time.

I like to believe that we all pray to the same god.

Looking straight at the world is part of your duty as a writer.

Wisdom tells us we are not worthy; Love tells us we are. My life flows between the two.

Until death itself comes, no calamity need be feared

A ring of gold with the sun in it? Lies. Lies and a grief.

Those only deserve a monument who do not need one; that is, who have raised themselves a monument in the minds and memories of men.