Some artists want to confront. Some want to invoke thought. They're all necessary and they're all valid.

When I was building the Vietnam Memorial, I never once asked the veterans what it was like in the war, because from my point of view, you don't pry into other people's business.

It's funny, as you live through something you're not aware of it.

My grandfather, on my father's side, helped to draft one of the first constitutions of China. He was a fairly well-known scholar.

It was a requirement by the veterans to list the 57,000 names. We're reaching a time that we'll acknowledge the individual in a war on a national level.

Growing up, I thought I was white. It didn't occur to me I was Asian-American until I was studying abroad in Denmark and there was a little bit of prejudice.

The only thing that mattered was what you were to do in life, and it wasn't about money. It was about teaching, or learning.

I loved logic, math, computer programming. I loved systems and logic approaches. And so I just figured architecture is this perfect combination.

Nothing is ever guaranteed, and all that came before doesn't predicate what you might do next.

My dad was dean of fine arts at the university. I was casting bronzes in the school foundry. I was using the university as a playground.

Warmth isn't what minimalists are thought to have.

I loved school. I studied like crazy. I was a Class A nerd.

I really enjoyed hanging out with some of the teachers. This one chemistry teacher, she liked hanging out. I liked making explosives. We would stay after school and blow things up.

Our parents decided not to teach us Chinese. It was an era when they felt we would be better off if we didn't have that complication.

You should be having more fun in high school, exploring things because you want to explore them and learning because you love learning-not worrying about competition.

I went through withdrawal when I got out of graduate school. It's what you learn, what you think. That's all that counts.

I try to give people a different way of looking at their surroundings. That's art to me.

My goal is to strip things down so that you need just the right amount of words or shape to convey what you need to convey. I like editing. I like it very tight.

I can't shout out, Do this. I don't want to be prescriptive. I want to give you facts, and that's the way I've always operated, whether it's a historical fact or a scientific fact, and then you actually have to connect it in your brain.

To fly we have to have resistance.