My work is very bodily. It's not a shell, but a body.

The playful search for beauty.

I don't call myself an 'industrial designer,' because I'm other things. Industrial designers want to make novel things. Novelty is a concept of commerce, not an aesthetic concept.

When I met my designs in the market of a remote village in the West Indies, or in the airport restaurant in Zurich, I felt like the mother of many well-behaved children.

Everything I do is a direct creation of my hands, whether it is made in wood, plaster or clay.

I never wanted to do something grotesque. I never wanted to shock. I wanted my audience to be happy, to be kind.

Beautiful things make people happy.

My designs are meant to attract the hand as well as the eye.

I think with my hands. I design things to be touched-not for a museum. A piece is ready when it has the shape of something to cherish.

If you think of beautiful things, you’re not sad.

When you have clay in your hands, it's hard to avoid making birds.

Without magic, there is no art. Without art, there is no idealism. Without idealism, there is no integrity. Without integrity, there is nothing but production.

The lover's ailment is separate from all other ailments: love is the astrolabe of the mysteries of God.

On a Friday night, I like to go out because my friends, who have been working normal hours, just want to let go after a stressful week at work.

We've had Muslims in America since George Washington. And we've had many successful Muslims. We just lost a particular well-known one with Muhammad Ali.

Family pride entertains many unsocial opinions.

What matters to you defines your mattering.

If there are no endings, there are no beginnings and you see no new lands, so for everything that's lost, there is usually something gained.

Any of us would kill a cow rather than not have beef.

Anyone who ain't family is opposition

Possession, it is true, crowns exertion with rest; but it is only in the illusions of fancy that it has power to charm us.