I would think twice about designing stuff for which there was no need and which didn't endure.

When I design buildings I think of the overall composition much as the parts of a body would fit together. On top of that I think about how people will approach the building and experience that space.

This is what I like about being a designer: You can't really get it until you see it.

About half my designs are controlled fantasy 15 percent are total madness and the rest are bread-and-butter designs.

I start thinking about life after death. I've got to quit thinking about it because it's very deep. Very deep. Sometimes you start thinking about it and you don't feel like you want to be alive so I don't like to get all quiet.

I'm not on the run from anything and I'm not at all clear about what I'm running towards. But as some great writer put it I want to be certain that when I arrive at death I'm totally exhausted.

Most of the debate over the cultures of death and life is about process. The debate focuses on the technology available to determine how we prolong life and how and when we end it.

Here's a thing about the death of your mother or anyone else you love: You can't anticipate how you'll feel afterward. People will tell you a few may be close to right none exactly right.

I think about death a lot I really do because I can't believe I won't exist. It's the ego isn't it? I feel that I should retreat into a better form of Zen Buddhism than this kind of ego-dominated thing. But I don't know I mean I want to come back as a tree but I suspect that it's just not going to happen is it?

You realize that however much you don't think about death - or think that's for other people - you're just an organism living from day to day. I'm just grateful I'm here.

The illness and the untimely death of my brothers has made me conscious of the fact that - rather than just think about it - it's crucial that you do today what you want to do.

I don't want to hear about my death.

Patrick Henry did not say 'Give me absolutely safety or give me death.' America is supposed to be about freedom.

The first novel I wrote was a monster - clocking in at 180 000 words - but it died a death a death it deserved. It was called 'The Gods First Make Mad.' It was a good title but it was the only good thing about the book. I didn't let that put me off.

We worry about the seemingly ever-increasing number of natural catastrophes. Yet this is mainly a consequence of CNN - we see many more but the number is roughly constant and we manage to deal much better with them over time. Globally the death rate from catastrophes has dropped about fifty-fold over the past century.

I stay way from that area and there's only so many songs you can write about love sex and death.

Though I am a Catholic a professing one I have serious doubts about the survival of the human personality after death.