To provide meaningful architecture is not to parody history but to articulate it.
Cities are the greatest creations of humanity.
Winning a competition in architecture is a ticket to oblivion. It's just an idea. Ninety-nine per cent never get built.
I studied architecture in New York. So, really I was very moved, like everyone else, to try to contribute something that has that resonance and profundity of it means to all of us.
I think there is a new awareness in this 21st century that design is as important to where and how we live as it is for museums, concert halls and civic buildings.
And then, build a bustling wonderful city of the 21st century, with a restoration of a spectacular skyline, which Manhattan, of course, needs. So, that is really the design as a whole.
Life it is not just a series of calculations and a sum total of statistics, it's about experience, it's about participation, it is something more complex and more interesting than what is obvious.
There are more people living in Lower Manhattan now than before the terrorist attacks. That's faith for you. There's such a strong spirit here.
I'm not Candide, nor Dr Pangloss, but we know that faith moves mountains.
Only through acknowledgment of the erasure and void of Jewish life can the history of Berlin and Europe have a human future.