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Building a house is like producing a movie. There's no right way to do it but a lot of wrong ways. You have to be flexible and creative. You have to move fast, be prepared - or it quickly becomes costly.

What does a house want to be?

A house with any kind of age will have dozens of stories to tell. I suppose if a novelist could live long enough, one could base an entire oeuvre on the lives that weave in and out of an antique house.

I'm just fascinated by houses. In another life, I'd have probably trained as an architect. If I had enough money, I'd collect them like other people collect teapots. I don't know why I love them so much. I'm just very interested in the idea of a house as a metaphor for the way one lives.

A house must be built on solid foundations if it is to last. The same principle applies to man, otherwise he too will sink back into the soft ground and becomes swallowed up by the world of illusion.

A house cannot be made habitable in a day; and, after all, how few days go to make up a century.

A house is not a home unless it contains food and fire for the mind as well as the body.

Designing a house is like doing a movie: Once you're done, you want to say, 'I hope you all enjoy it.'

There is something permanent, and something extremely profound, in owning a home.