You don't restore 'The Last Supper' by filling in the missing bits - you preserve. You accept the material that has somehow survived.

The difference between good and bad architecture is the time you spend on it.

A building is no good if someone's got to explain to you why it's good. You can't say you don't know enough about architecture - that's ridiculous. It's got to work on many levels.

I suppose I'm trying to build an architecture that's as timeless as possible, although we're all creatures of our age.

I may not be the most interesting architect, but I'm still out there and have maintained some position of integrity.

Most architects work in ­studios largely divorced from academia, as if ideas, criticism and ­historical ­research were irrelevant.

I don't think architecture is radical. How can something that takes years and costs millions be radical?

Britain gets the architecture it deserves. We don’t value architecture, we don’t take it seriously, we don’t want to pay for it and the architect isn’t trusted.

If you look at a building by Mies van der Rohe, it might look very simple, but up close, the sheer quality of construction, materials and thought are inspirational.

Britain loves a bargain, but you don't get good, lasting architecture on the cheap.

It is difficult to separate oneself from one's design moralities.

Novels and gardens, " she says. "I like to move from plot to plot.

When you listen to good music in the morning makes a good day.

Maybe destiny isn't something that just happens. Maybe destiny is something you do. Maybe destiny is like a seed and it grows.

selling my soul for student loans and an education.

Writing is the spectrum through which the chaos of life can be seen, studied and understood.

The force of union conquers all.

I can say, particularly as a mother of four small children. I can talk about the coarsening of our culture.

Unity, not uniformity, must be our aim. We attain unity only through variety. Differences must be integrated, not annihilated, not absorbed.

Twixt kings and tyrants there's this difference known; Kings seek their subjects' good: tyrants their own.

This must be your point of view: that the world and all it contains is perfect, though not completed.