Zaha Hadid

“It's very important that historic cities are allowed to reinvent their future.”

“I really love Miami, but I don't think the architecture matches the city. It's a bit too commercial.”

“I have always appreciated those who dare to experiment with materials and proportions.”

“If I wanted to do clothes or if I wanted to make a building or design a choreography, you are able to do that - they are all under a similar kind of design umbrella.”

“I'm into fashion because it contains the mood of the day, of the moment - like music, literature, and art.”

“Architecture is how the person places herself in the space. Fashion is about how you place the object on the person.”

“I'm a pushover. I make allowances for people if I like them.”

“I used to not like being called a 'woman architect': I'm an architect, not just a woman architect. Guys used to tap me on the head and say, 'You are okay for a girl.' But I see the incredible amount of need from other women for reassurance that it could be done, so I don't mind that at all.”

“I will always have two regrets. I don't have a presence in London, and I would have liked to have done more work in the Middle East.”

“Obviously for some people there is a big connection between music and the way you can create a space.”

“Men think a woman should not have an opinion.”

“I don't particularly like showing furniture on pedestals, but for whatever reasons you always have to in museums.”

“My friendships are very important to me.”

“Wherever I am in the world, my perfect day begins with waking up and heading to the beach or the pool or somewhere I can be semi-comatose. I just wake up and go to the sun.”

“Being Iraqi taught me to be very cautious.”

“I have always appreciated designers who dare to reinterpret fabrics and proportions, so I follow the Japanese and Belgian designers. The pieces are so animated. When they lie still, they are one thing, but once you stand them up or wear them, they become something else.”

“When you are overworked and exhausted, there is a sense of kind of delirium and that's why I think architects do all-nighters and they kind of do those deadlines. For four days I remember doing four nights in one row with no sleep. I mean nobody, unless you are crazy, would do that, but you are totally focused on the project.”

“All the privileged can travel, see different worlds; not everyone can. I think it is important for people to have an interesting locale nearby.”

“Half of architecture students are women, and you see respected, established female architects all the time.”

“I don't think I am that tough, actually. Well, tough in the sense that I don't take any rubbish, and that doesn't make me very popular, frankly. I mean, because some people say something to me, and I just tell them off. I mean, why should I put up with it?”