To me, the American Dream is being able to follow your own personal calling. To be able to do what you want to do is incredible freedom.
I try to give people a different way of looking at their surroundings. That's art to me.
To fly we have to have resistance.
Warmth isn't what minimalists are thought to have.
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.
Art is very tricky because it's what you do for yourself. It's much harder for me to make those works than the monuments or the architecture.
You have to let the viewers come away with their own conclusions. If you dictate what they should think, you've lost it.
Some artists want to confront. Some want to invoke thought. They're all necessary and they're all valid.
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.
I deliberately did not read anything about the Vietnam War because I felt the politics of the war eclipsed what happened to the veterans. The politics were irrelevant to what this memorial was.
Math, it's a puzzle to me. I love figuring out puzzles.
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.
All my work is much more peaceful than I am.
I loved logic, math, computer programming. I loved systems and logic approaches. And so I just figured architecture is this perfect combination.
I went through withdrawal when I got out of graduate school. It's what you learn, what you think. That's all that counts.
You couldn't put me in a social group setting. I'm probably a terrible anarchist deep down.
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 probably spent the first 20 years of my life wanting to be as American as possible. Through my 20s, and into my 30s, I began to become aware of how so much of my art and architecture has a decidedly Eastern character.
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.
Some of your teachers are actually closer in age to you than you think.
