Purpose is not necessary to make a building beautiful.

I wouldn't build a building if it wasn't of interest to me as a potential work of art. Why should I?

I always think of buildings in their settings, but so do other architects.

Houston is undoubtedly my showcase city. I saved all my best buildings for Houston.

We borrowed money, it helped us with bonds and what not, and the Federal Government backed it, but it was a guarantee, it was not a grant. And we not only paid it off, but we paid it off ahead of time.

When you socially neglect a people, when you economically abandon a people, when you transfer wealth from them to the well-to-do, what are a people going to do? They're going to respond with very sad forms of despair, and that's true for everybody - I don't care what color you are.

I hear, 'But why do poor people make such bad decisions?' But actually, their decision-making can be far more complex than that of the better-off in many ways. They're not financially illiterate: they're constantly weighing up choices based on the reality of poverty. Somehow the international development community has resisted accepting this.

You have to go to where you can make money, and you see in the service area, in the technological area, those are the areas where we're going to create jobs.