Dan Phillips

Building codes are a good thing. People who throw rocks at inspectors are being naive. It's a lot like police officers; we want them around unless they stop us for a ticket. It's the same with inspectors. ”

People have been doing this for hundreds of thousands of years: using whatever is available to build shelter. If you ponder what could be used, then building materials are everywhere. ”

Look at kids playing with blocks. I think it's in everyone's DNA to want to be a builder. ”

I was a dancer of no repute. But dance taught me a lot. You walk into a dance studio knowing you have to walk out with a dance. You improvise. ”

I decided to set out to prove that you could make a reasonable living building for the poor using recycled materials and only hiring unskilled labor. ”

You can put someone in a new home, but you can't give them a new mindset. ”

Where do you get lumpy tiles? Well, of course, you don't. But I get a lot of toilets, and so you just dispatch a toilet with a hammer, and then you have lumpy tiles. ”

For centuries, building materials were free. You want to build a house, you cut down some trees. But we haven't been thinking about the cost to the planet. ”

Back when I was restoring art and antiques, finding ivory was very difficult because it's illegal, and the only difference between bone and ivory is that bone is free and not illegal. ”

I had always suspected that one could build an entire house from what went into the landfill, and, sure enough, it's true. ”