When I was growing up in Iraq, there was an unbroken belief in progress and a great sense of optimism. It was a moment of nation building.

I don't think that architecture is only about shelter, is only about a very simple enclosure. It should be able to excite you, to calm you, to make you think.

You have to really believe not only in yourself; you have to believe that the world is actually worth your sacrifices.

There are 360 degrees, so why stick to one?

Architecture is like writing. You have to edit it over and over so it looks effortless

You really have to have a goal. The goal posts might shift, but you should have a goal. Know what it is you want to find out.

The beauty of the landscape - where sand, water, reeds, birds, buildings, and people all somehow flowed together - has never left me.

I have always appreciated those who dare to experiment with materials and proportions.

Architecture is how the person places herself in the space. Fashion is about how you place the object on the person.

Yes, I'm a feminist, because I see all women as smart, gifted and tough.

I think about architecture all the time. That's the problem. But I've always been like that. I dream it sometimes.

What a world it is, Cora thought, that makes a living prison into your only haven. Was she out of bondage or in its web: how to describe the status of a runaway?

It was probably right after I made my comeback - after retiring post-2008 Olympics - when I finally felt more at ease with my body. Being away from the sport helped put things in perspective.

The weekends are really important to me; the use of technology is really important to me.

Illness is the opposite of freedom. It makes everything impossible.

When you fight someone, you share the experience with that one person, and you’re never going to have that experience with someone else-even in another fight.

The sun has just risen, weak and watery-looking, like it had just spilled itself over the horizon and is too lazy to clean itself up.

Pacifist propaganda and the resolutions of the parliamentarians encouraged such treaties, and toward the end of the nineteenth century their number had increased considerably.

Repetition is a form of change

I feel calm when I'm on my own.

I was just glad to be going to work again.